PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


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Division. ^^'^.  ."ft.SQ 
Nuitiber 


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This  volume  Avas  left  ready  for  the  press  by  Dr. 
Manning.  It  needed  no  altei-ation  or  revision.  We 
give  it  to  the  world  as  it  is,  the  expression  of  his 
heai-t-life  and  ripe  convictions. 


Not  of  Man  but  of  God 


EEV.  J.   M.   MANNIKG    D.D. 

AUTHOR  OF  "  HALF  TRUTHS  AND  THE  TRUTH  '* 
"  HELPS  TO  A  LIFE  OF  PKAVER  "  ETC. 


BOSTON 
D.   LOTHROP  AND   COMPANY 

30  AND  32  Franklin  Street 


Copyright, 

By  D.  Lothrop  and  Company 

1883. 


ELECTROTYPED. 

BOSTON  STEKEOTYPE   FOUNDRY, 
4  Peaul  Street. 


'"^^. 


^ 


COKTEJS^TS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANYTHING  MAY  BE  DOUBTED. 

THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  BIBLE.  ARGUMENT  NOT  NEEDED. 
RIGHT  POINT  OF  VIEW  ENOUGH.  A  STRONG  STATEMENT.  TRUTHS 
WHICH  HAVE  BEEN  DOUBTED  AS  STOUTLY  AS  THE  BIBLE.  THE 
AXIOMS  OF  MATHEMATICS.  NOT  SURPRISING  THAT  THOSE  WHO 
DOUBT  AXIOMS  DOUBT  THE  BIBLE.  THAT  TOU  ARE  A  PERSON  HAS 
BEEN  DOUBTED.  EXISTENCE  OF  GOD  HAS  BEEN  DOUBTED.  EXIST- 
ENCE OF  AN  OUTWARD  WORLD  DENIED.  THE  INFERENCE.  LEGEND 
OF  THE  ROMAN  SIBYL.  WHAT  YOU  HAVE  LOST  OF  THE  BIBLE  MAY 
BE   RECOVERED ...  Pao'C    1 


CHAPTER  H. 


GOD     DESIRES     TO    REVEAL    HIMSELF. 


THEME  RESTATED.  NOT  POSITIVELY  PROVED.  MAY  BE  TRITE, 
HOWEVER  DOUBTED.  GOD's  DESIRE  IN  THE  CASE.  OUR  IDEA  OF 
GOD.  WHAT  EARTHLY  FATHERS  DO.  GOD  YEARNS  FOR  HIS  STRAY- 
ING CHILDREN.  A  MOTHER'S  LOVE  FOR  US.  GOD  NOT  TRUE  TO  HIS 
OWN  NATURf;  IF  NOT  REVEALED.  GOD's  COMPASSION  MOVES  HIM 
TO  SHOW  HIMSELF  TO  US.  OUR  SAD  CASE  WHILE  STRAYING  FROM 
HIM.  THE  CHILD  WRETCHED  APART  FROM  THE  FATHER.  HOV>r  WE 
WO    AFTER    MEN    IN    ARCTIC     SEAS.      GOD    WILL    NOT    LEAVE     US     TO 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PEKISH.  SHALL  OUR  INFINITE  FATHER  SEND  NO  LIFE-BOAT  TO  THE 
WRECKED  SPIRIT  WHICH  IS  HIS  CHILD  ?  OUR  SIN  INTENSIFIES 
god's  DESIRE  TO  BE  REVEALED  TO  US.  GOD'S  LOVE  OF  HOLINESS 
WILL  NOT  LET  HIM  STAY  UNREVEALED.  NATURE  DOES  NOT  ADE- 
QUATELY REVEAL  GOD.  MANY  THINGS  IN  NATURE  AGAINST  THE 
IMPRESSION  GOD  WOULD  GIVE  US  OF  HIMSELF.  NATURE  CANNOT 
REVEAL  THE  MORAL  ATTRIBUTES  OF  GOD.  GOD  MUST  SPEAK,  AND 
PROVIDE  MEN  TO  RECORD  WHAT  HE  SAYS.  GOD  MUST  COME  IN 
THE  FLESH  TO  BE  PERFECTLY  REVEALED.  GOD'S  CHARACTER  OUR 
ASSURANCE  THAT  HE  WILL  COME  TO  US  IN  THE  REVELATION  WE 
NEED.  OUR  RELIEF  AND  BLESSEDNESS  WHEN  WE  FIND  THAT  OUR 
INFINITE  FATHER  IS  INDEED  REVEALED  TO  US   .  .  Pa>je   16 


CHAPTER  III. 

GOD    CAN    REVEAL    HIMSELF. 

CONCLUSION  OF  LAST  CHAPTER.  A  DIVINE  REVELATION  NECES- 
SARILY MIRACULOUS.  CAN  GOD  WORK  A  MIRACLE.  THE  ESSENTIAL 
IDEA  OF  A  MIRACLE.  OUR  BIBLE  MEETS  THIS  DEMAND  FOR  THE 
MIRACULOUS.  ACCOUNTING  FOR  THE  MIRACLES  ON  NATURAL  PRIN- 
CIPLES. THIS  TAKES  AWAY  WHAT  IS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  IDEA  OF  A 
DIVINE  REVELATION.  HOW  MEN  AVOID  REVEALING  THEMSELVES. 
GOD  MUST  SHOW  HIMSELF,  OR  HE  COMES  IN  VAIN.  NATURE  NOT 
THE  REVELATION  GOD  MOST  DESIRES.  A  REVELATION  OF  GOD  MUST 
BE  GOD-LIKE,  HENCE  MIRACULOUS.  OLD  TESTAMENT  MEETS  THE 
DEMAND  FOR  MIRACLES.  MIRACLES  OF  NEW  TESTAMENT  PROVE  IT 
DIVINE.  ST.  PAUL  TO  AGRIPPA.  CONCLUSION  FROM  MIRACLES. 
GOD  KNEW  THAT  HE  COULD  CONTROL  THE  FORCES  OF  NATURE,  OR 
HE  WOULD  NOT  HAVE  CREATED  THEM.  CONTRARY  TO  OUR  IDEA 
OF  GOD,  THAT  NATURE  SHOULD  KEEP  HIM  FROM  HIS  CHILDREN. 
GOD  GLORIFIED  IN  WIELDING  ALL  NATURE  FOR  HIS  HUMBLEST 
CHILD.  THE  FINITE  MUST  GUARD  ITS  RESOURCES.  GOD  NOT  IM- 
POVERISHED BY  GIVING.  GOD  CAN  MAKE  AND  DESTROY  WORLDS  AS 
THEY  HINDER  OR  WOULD  HELP  HIS  LOVE.  GOD  WILL  DO  ANY 
MIRACLE  RATHER  THAN  BE  KEPT  FROM  HIS  CHILDREN.  THE  FORM 
OF  THE  MIRACULOUS  OR  SUPERNATURAL  MAY  CHANGE.  MIRACLES 
HAVE     CEASED     ONLY    IN     A     LIMITED     SENSE.        THE    FORM    OF    THE 


CONTENTS.  vii 

DIVINE  REVELATION  MEETS  THE  HUMAN  NEED.  CIVILIZATION 
GLORIES  ONLY  AS  GOD  IS  IN  IT.  THE  STILL  SMALL  VOICE.  AL- 
MIGHTY   POWER   WIELDED   BY   PERFECT   LOVE         .  .  Pajre   31 


CHAPTER  IV. 

INSPIRATION. 

NEED  OF  INSPIRATION.  ELSE  NO  WRITTEN  REVELATION.  IF 
INSPIRATION  NEEDED,  NO  NEED  OP  BIBLE.  WORD  OF  GOD.  AN 
INSPIRATION  WHICH  IS  NATURAL.  MAY  DIMLY  REFLECT  THE  SUPER- 
NATURAL. MEN  THUS  INSPIRED  NOT  GOD'S  ACCREDITED  MESSEN- 
GERS. NOT  A  RESPECTER  OF  PERSONS.  GOD  MORE  MANIFEST  AS 
THE  INSTRUMENT  IS  WEAKER.  WRITERS  OF  THE  BIBLE  NOT  THE 
ONLY  MEN  GOD  HAS  INSPIRED.  TEST  OF  INSPIRATION-  BIBLE 
PASSES  THE  TEST.  BIBLE  SPEAKS  OF  DIVINE  WORDS  NOT  RE- 
CORDED. RELIEVED  BY  ADMITTING  OTHER  REVELATIONS.  WHAT 
IS  NOT  INSPIRED  NOT  FROM  GOD.  ONLY  WHAT  COMES  FROM  GOD 
CAN  REVEAL  HIM.  LOST  TRAVELLERS.  WHAT  WE  ALL  NEED. 
NONE  AVHOM  GOD  HAS  NOT  SENT  CAN  HELP  US.  WHAT  CLAIM  THE 
BIBLE  MAKES.  GOD  SPEAKS  AND  MEN  PUBLISH.  GOD  IN  THE 
MOSAIC  DISPENSATION.  GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  DISPENSATION. 
THE  DEMAND  FOR  INSPIRATION  VERY  URGENT.  INSPIRATION  THE 
ANCHOR  OF  OUR  HOPE Page  46 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    WITNESS    OF    UNINSPIRED    MEN. 

THE  POINT  NOW  REACHED.  THE  BIBLE  MEETS  OUR  DEMAND  FOR 
MIRACLES.  ARE  ITS  WRITERS  TO  BE  BELIEVED  ?  WITNESS  OF 
CONTEMPORARY  HISTORY.  TESTIMONY  OF  JOSEPHUS.  THE  MOABITE 
STONE.  INSPIRED  HISTORY  CONFIRMED.  BIBLE  A  GUIDE-BOOK  TO 
EGYPT.  ASSYRIAN  REMAINS  CONFIRM  BIBLE  RECORDS.  BIBLICAL 
AND  ASSYRIAN  ANNALS  COMPARED.  DURING  AND  AFTER  THE  CAP- 
TIVITY. WHAT  ARCH^OLOGISTS  EXPECT.  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 
CONFIRMED  BY  THE  NEW.  WITNESSES  TO  NEW  TESTAMENT.  IGNA- 
TIUS.      POLYCARP    AND      OTHERS.        NO      ROOM      FOR     MYTHOLOGY. 


viii  CONTENTS. 

WHAT  THE  WRITERS  CLAIMED.  HOW  BELIEVED  BY  CONTEMPO- 
RARIES. THE  ROMAN  CATACOMBS.  THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  PALESTINE 
A  WITNESS.  THE  TESTIMONY  SURPRISING  IN  AMOUNT.  THE  ENE- 
MIES OF  CHRIST  WITNESS  FOR  HIM.  THE  DREAM  OF  PILATE'S 
WIFE.      THE   DAMSEL    WITH    THE    SPIRIT   OF   DIVINATION       Page   62 

CHAPTER  VI. 

TESTIMONY    OF    THE    PROPHECIES. 

A  RECAPITULATION.  THE  WRITERS  OF  THE  BIBLE  FALSE  WIT- 
NESSES IF  NOT  INSPIRED.  THE  CLAIM  WHICH  CHRIST  MAKES. 
PROMISE  OF  CHRIST  TO  THOSE  WHO  SHOULD  RECORD  HIS  WORDS. 
WHAT  THE  APOSTLES  CLAIM.  NATURE  OF  PROPHECY.  ONLY  FUL- 
FILLED TO  BE  CONSIDERED.  FULFILMENT  OF  PROPHECIES  CON- 
CERNING ISRAEL.  WHAT  WAS  SAID  TO  ABRAHAM  AT  BETHEL. 
THE  BONDAGE  IN  EGYPT  FORETOLD.  WHAT  BALAAM  PREDICTED. 
PROPHECY  OF  THE  DECLINE  OF  ISRAEL.  THE  CAPTIVITY.  THE 
DOOM  OF  TYRE.  EGYPT.  BABYLON.  THE  FATE  OF  JERUSALEM. 
PREDICTIONS  CONCERNING  CHRIST.  FIFTY-THIRD  OF  ISAIAH.  RE- 
JECTION OF  CHRIST  BY  THE  JEWS  FORETOLD.  SIXTY-SECOND  OF 
ISAIAH  AND  FOURTH  OF  LUKE.  JOEL  AND  THE  DAY  OF  PENTE- 
COST. PROPHECY  AND  APOSTOLIC  HISTORY.  TRIBUTE  OF  HAL- 
LAM    Page  78 

CHAPTER  VII. 

WHAT    THE    BIBLE    HAS    DONE. 

POWER  OF  THE  BIBLE  AMONG  MEN.  LIKE  THE  RIVER  NILE. 
OTHER  ANCIENT  BOOKS  INFERIOR.  BUT  ONE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
THE  BIBLE  WITHOUT  EARTHLY  PRESTIGE.  BIBLE  COMPARED  WITH 
HUMAN  CLASSICS.  A  SOURCE  OF  OTHER  BOOKS.  ATTACKS  ON  THE 
BIBLE.  DEFENDERS  AND  EXPOUNDERS.  THE  BIBLE  AND  SECULAR 
LITERATURE.  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  DONE  FOR  ART.  PAINTING. 
MISIC.  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  DONE  IN  SOCIETY.  THE  BIBLE  IN 
NORTHERN  EUROPE.  THE  RED  MAN  NOT  AN  EXCEPTION.  SAND- 
V/ICH  ISLANDS.  MADAGASCAR.  FIJI  ISLANDS.  MUTINEERS  OF  SHIP 
BOUNTY.  THE  BIBLE  SHOWN  TO  BE  GOD'S  BOOK.  INFERENCE 
FROM   THIS   SURVEY   OF   HISTORY     .  ,  .  .  .  Page   94 


CONTENTS.  ix 


CHAPTER  VII  [. 

WHAT    THE    BIBLE    SAYS    OF    MAN. 

• 

ARGUMENT  FOR  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  BIBLE  ALREADY  SUFFI- 
CIENT. OTHER  EVIDENCE  INTERNAL  RATHER  THAN  EXTERNAL. 
WHAT  IS  MAN  ?  MAN  A  SPIRIT.  CONVICTION  OF  THE  SOUL  CON- 
CERNING ITSELF.  THE  BIBLE  ANSWERS  TO  OUR  UNEASY  CONVIC- 
TION. WHAT  WAS  SAID  AT  MAN'S  CREATION.  THE  BIBLE  CONFIRMS 
AND  EXPLAINS  OUR  CONVICTIONS.  MAN  SPIRITUAL  AND  DIVINE. 
THE  BIBLE  INSISTS  MORE  AND  MORE  ON  THIS  FROM  BEGINNING 
TO  END.  NO  OTHER  BOOK  SHEDS  SUCH  LIGHT.  IDEA  OP  IMMOR- 
TALITY IN  THE  BIBLE  AS  IN  THE  SOUL.  THE  BIBLE  GIVES  THE 
IDEA  A  VOICE.  HOW  MEN  CAME  TO  DOUBT  THEIR  IMMORTALITY. 
ONLY  EFFACED  IN  SAVAGE  MINDS.  THE  BIBLE  MEETS  OUR  HIGH- 
EST THOUGHT.  WHY  GRADUALLY  REVEALED.  NECESSARY'  INFER- 
ENCE. WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  A  FALL  IN  MAN.  MEN  KNOW 
THEY  ARE  FALLEN  APART  FROM  THE  BIBLE.  HUMAN  SOCIETY 
ASSUMES  THAT  MAN  IS  FALLEN.  THE  BIBLE  AGREES  WITH  ALL 
EXPERIENCE.  GOD  REVEALED  IN  THE  SELF-REVELATION.  A  PRAC- 
TICAL LESSON  FOR  THE   READER Pagfe   112 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WHAT    THE    BIBLE    SAYS    OF    GOD. 

INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  CONTINUED.  HOW  GOD  IS  PORTRAYED  IN 
THE  BIBLE.  EXISTENCE  OF  GOD  ASSUMED.  NOT  ARGUMENT,  BUT 
PERCEPTION,  WHAT  ATHEISTS  NEED.  EXISTENCE  OF  GOD  ABOVE 
FORMAL  PROOF.  SIN  A  SOURCE  OF  DOUBT.  COLD  REASONING 
REPELS.  BIBLE  SPEAKS  TO  THE  LATENT  BELIEF  IN  A  GOD.  BIBLE 
DOES  NOT  IMPLANT,  BUT  GUIDES,  THE  LONGING  FOR  GOD.  A  VOICE 
TO  WHAT  IS  DUMB  WITHIN  US.  THE  BIBLE  INSISTS  ON  THE  FATH- 
ERHOOD OF  GOD.  AWAKES  THE  CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THIS  FATHER- 
HOOD. FAITH  BEFORE  DOUBT.  TRUE  FATHERHOOD  IMPLIES 
JUSTICE.      THE     GOD     OF     THE     BIBLE     MEETS   THE   YLARNING   FOR   A 


X  CONTENTS.      ' 

FATHER.  THE  TRUTH  GRADUALLY  MANIFESTED.  THE  PERFECT  SON 
REVEALS  THE  FATHERHOOD.  THE  BIBLE  FULL  OF  THIS  GOD.  FIND 
MORE  OF  GOD  THE  MORE  WE  FATHOM  SCRIPTURE.  THE  BIBLE 
BINDS  MEN  TO  GOD.  GOD  THE  ALPHA  AND  OMEGA  OF  SCRIPTURE. 
THE     CHRIST    OP     THE     GOSPELS     OUR    CHIEF    JOY.       A    WITNESS     TO 

god's  love Pnge  129 

CHAPTER  X. 

WHAT    THE    BIBLE    SATS    OP    MORAL    ORDER. 

THE  PHRASE  "MORAL  ORDER"  TO  BE  DEFINED.  AN  INSTANCE 
OF  PHYSICAL  ORDER.  THE  LAW  OF  MORAL  ORDER.  THE  SOUL 
RECOGNIZES  THIS  LAW.  THE  QUESTION.  THE  BIBLE  ANSWERS  TO 
OUR  CONVICTIONS.  BIBLE  HISTORY  FULL  OF  THE  LAW  OF  MORAL 
ORDER.  ALLOWANCE  FOR  HUMAN  WEAKNESS.  CHRIST  THE  PERFECT 
INSTANCE.  THE  SAME  LAW  IN  BOTH  THE  PERFECT  AND  IMPERFECT. 
god's  MOTIVE  IN  CREATION.  ONE  MORAL  LAW  FOR  GOD  AND  MEN. 
WHY  GOD  IS  NOT  TEMPTED  TO  EVIL.  WHY  MEN  DO  EVIL.  RESULT 
IF  GOD  SHOULD  DO  WRONG.  WHY  GOD  IS  BLESSED.  HOW  MEN 
SHARE  HIS  BLESSEDNESS.  NO  BLESSEDNESS  BUT  IN  RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS. THE  WAGES  OF  SIN.  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL  A  MYSTERY.  THE 
BIBLE  ACCOUNT  THE  CLEAREST  WE  HAVE.  SIN  NECESSARILY 
PUNISHED.  PUNISHMENT  NOT  ARBITRARY.  OUR  HEARTS  RESPOND 
TO  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  RETRIBUTION.  FAITHFULNESS  OF 
GOD.  TENDERNESS  OF  CHRIST.  IT  MUST  BE  GOD  WHO  SPEAKS  SO 
TRULY   AND   PROFOUNDLY   OF  WHAT   IS   IN   MEN  .  .  Pa^e    145 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WHAT    THE    BIBLE    SAYS    OF    REDEMPTIO^ST. 

TRUTHS  ALREADY  KNOWN  WHICH  THE  BIBLE  MAKES  CLEAR. 
MAN.  GOD.  MORAL  ORDER.  THE  WHOLLY  NEW  TRUTH  OF  SCRIP- 
TURE. BEYOND  THE  REACH  OF  WORDS.  REDEMPTION  PECULIARLY 
A  BIBLE  THEME.  A  RELIEF  TO  TROUBLED  MINDS.  THE  QUESTION 
WHICH  ONLY  GOD  CAN  ANSWER.  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  REDEMPTION 
GIVES    THE    BIBLE     ITS    UNIQUE   VALUE.       THE    CROSS    CENTRAL  IN 


•  CONTENTS.  xi 

SCRIPTURE.  OUR  GREAT  WANT,  NOT  KNOWING  BUT  HEALING.  MAN 
HAS  NEVER  MET  THE  CASE.  HE  WHO  SPEAKS  IN  THE  BIBLE  BRINGS 
HEALING.  A  REDEMPTION  NOT  OF  MAN  FILLS  SCRIPTURE.  THEO- 
RIES OF  ATONEMENT  UNSATISFYING.  BLESSEDNESS  OF  THE  FACT. 
WHAT  WE  ALREADY  KNOW.  CAN  WE  ESCAPE  REMORSE  ?  NOT 
THROUGH  MAN.  A  GOD-MAN  CALLED  FOR.  HOW  OUR  DIVINE 
MEDIATOR  SAVES.  WHY  THE  CROSS  IS  AN  OFFENCE  TO  MANY. 
HOW  THE  OFFENCE  IS  REMOVED.  ALL-SUFFICIENCY  OF  CHRIST. 
CHRIST  PLANTS  HIS  OWN  LIFE  IN  MAN.  THE  STORY  OF  REDExMP- 
TION   god's    seal.      a   LOVING    WORD   TO    THE   READER.        Page    160 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHY    SOME    MEN    DOUBT    THE    BIBLE. 

ONE  OTHER  QUESTION  TO  BE  CONSIDERED.  CAUSES  OF  DOUBT 
GENERAL  AND  SPECIAL.  WORLDLY  MINDEDNESS.  DIVINE  THINGS 
UNREAL.  THE  WORLD  ALL  ABSORBING.  WE  BECOME  LIKE  THAT 
TO  WHICH  WE  GIVE  OURSELVES.  THE  TV/O  DOORS.  BEING  EAGER 
FOR  THE  TEMPORAL,  WE  DOUBT  THE  ETERNAL.  DULNESS  OF  THE 
SPIRITUAL  PERCEPTIONS  A  CAUSE  OF  DOUBT.  THE  BLIND  MAN'S 
IDEA  OF  COLOR.  OUR  SPIRITUAL  DEFECT  TO  BE  CONSIDERED. 
MANY  FORMS  OP  WORLDLINESS.  THE  LIFE  OF  GROSS  EARTULINES8 
ONLY  ONE  FORM.  SPIRITUAL  PERCEPTIONS  DEADENED  BY  SECU- 
LAR ENGROSSMENT.  SCIENCE  MAY  BE  A  FORM  OF  EARTHLINESS. 
HOW  SCIENTIFIC  STUDIES  MAY  LEAD  TO  DOUBT.  HOW  THE  MASSES 
OF  MEN  CAME  TO  DOUBT  THE  BIBLE.  DISTRUST  OF  THE  BIBLE  CAN 
BE  REMOVED.  THE  CAUSE  OF  DOUBT  SHOWS  THE  REMEDY.  SPIR- 
ITUAL QUICKENING  THE  GREAT  NEED.  THE  LIFE  OF  GOD  IN 
THE  SOUL  THE  REMEDY  FOR  DOUBT.  RELIGIOUS  DOUBT  SHOWS 
A  NARROW  MAN.  HOW  ABLE  THINKERS  AFAY  DOUBT.  THE  MEN 
OF  FAITH.  OPENNESS  OF  SOUL  TO  THE  RENEWING  SPIRIT.  FAITH 
A     PLANT     OF     GRADUAL     GROWTH.  OBEDIENCE     THE     NURSE      OF 

FAITH.      HOW   TO   DRINK   THE   LIVING    WATER        .  .  Paoe    176 


NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 


CHAPTER   I. 

ANYTHING   MAY   BE   DOUBTED. 

Nothing  can  be  more  sure  than  that  God  has 
spoken  to  men,  and  that  our  Bible  is  such  a  record 
as  we  need  of  what  he  has  said.  The  whole  Bible 
is,  in  this  view  of  it,  the  theme  not  only  of  this 
opening  chapter,  but  of  those  which  may  follow 
it  in  the  present  volume.  It  is  in  Christ's  stead, 
my  dear  friend,  that  I  ask  you  to  spend  a  little 
while  with  me  in  considering  what  the  proofs  are 
of  the  divine  origin  of  Scripture. 

No  doubt  you  will  be  surprised  to  hear  me  say 
that  I  propose  to  prove  that  our  Bible  is  a  message 
to  us  from  God,  when  I  tell  you,  as  I  now  frankly 
do,  that  my  mind  instinctively  recoils  from  any 
such  proposal.  My  first  feeling  in  regard  to  it 
is  that  it  is  irreverent ;  that  it  is  a  profane  attempt 
to  prove  what  is  aljove  all  proof;  that  it  is  pre- 
suming to  put  on  trial  what  prophet  and  psalmist 
and  apostle  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  all  assume 
to  be  true.     Let    me    say,  then,  that    I    do  not 

1 


2  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF   GOD. 

propose  to  put  our  Bible  on  trial,  but  ratiier  to 
withdraw  it  from  the  trial  on  which  others  have 
thoughtlessly  or  in  their  blindness  put  it.  The 
truth  of  the  Bible  will  be  as  clear  to  us  as  the 
sun,  if  we  come  back  to  the  spiritual  nature  in 
us  ;  if  from  that  point  of  view  we  candidly  look 
at  it,  and  pay  no  attention  to  the  intricate  and  be- 
wildering arguments  which  men  have  constructed, 
whether  for  or  against  it.  All  truth  has  a  self- 
evidencing  power  when  we  are  set  face  to  face 
with  it,  and  candidly  look  at  it  from  the  right 
point  of  view.  I  hope  to  bring  you  to  that  point, 
and  there  leave  you  to  judge  for  yourself,  if  any 
doubt  such  as  is  sometimes  put  in  our  way,  or 
arises  in  our  minds,  has  caused  you  to  look  with 
suspicion  on  this  most  blessed  and  divine  gift,  — 
our  Bible,  the  book  of  books. 

Let  me  repeat  the  words  with  Avhich  I  began : 
"  Nothing  can  be  more  sure  than  that  God  has 
spoken  to  men,  and  that  our  Bible  is  such  a 
record  as  we  need  of  what  he  has  said."  This 
statement  may  not  cover  all  the  ground  which  we 
need  to  go  over,  for  God  reveals  himself  in  what 
he  does  no  less  than  in  what  he  says ;  but  it  will 
answer  for  a  beginning.  "  But  is  not  that  a  pretty 
strong  statement,  altogether  too  strong,  which  you 
make  in  saying  that  nothing  else  can  be  more  sure 
than  the  Bible  ? "  As  likely  as  not  you  toss  me 
this  question  on  the  very  start ;  yet  I  take  back 


ANYTHING  MAY  BE  DOUBTED.  3 

nothing  ;  I  do  not  qualify  or  limit  what  I  have  said. 
The  statement  cannot  be  too  strong.  I  intended 
to  make  it  as  strong  as  possible.  "Nothing  else 
can  be  more  sure,"  is  my  assertion,  and  to  it  I 
mean  to  adhere.  ''What,"  you  say,  "as  sure  as 
our  own  existence?"  Certainly.  "As  sure  as  that 
there  are  stars  in  the  sky,  and  a  moon,  and  a  sun?" 
Certainly.  "  As  sure  as  that  there  is  a  solid  earth 
under  us  with  cities  and  people  and  trees  and  ani- 
mals upon  it,  and  streams  and  seas  with  fishes  in 
them  ?  "  Certainly.  "  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  the 
Bible  is  as  surely  true  as  it  is  true  that  two  and 
two  are  equal  to  four,  or  that  the  angles  in  a  square 
figure  are  right  angles?"  Certainly.  "But,"  you 
say,  "the  truth  of  the  Bible  has  been  questioned ; 
and  who  ever  questioned  the  truths  of  pure  math- 
ematics, or  his  own  existence,  or  the  facts  of  an 
external  world?"  Who?  Dear  friend,  I  can  give 
you  a  plenty  of  names  of  men  who  have  doubted 
mathematical  and  material  certainties  just  as  much 
as  anybody  ever  doubted  the  divine  origin  of  the 
Bible.  And  here  I  come  to  just  the  point  which  I 
wish  to  present  in  this  chapter. 

All  that  people  have  said  or  are  now  saying 
about  the  Bible  not  bemg  true  does  not  prove  that 
it  is  not  true.  Let  us  trace  the  analogy  or  parallel 
a  little  way,  — just  enough  to  scatter  any  haze  of 
suspicion  or  doubt  which  may  have  begun  to  gather 
in  your  mind  concerning  the  Bible. 


4  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

We  will  take  first  the  analogy  of  mathematics. 
You  believe  that  two  dollars  and  two  dollars  are 
equal  to  four  dollars,  do  you  not  ?  ^'  Oh,  yes. "  Your 
experience  has  taught  you  that.  Let  some  one  who 
owes  you  the  two  and  two  dollars  try  to  prove  that 
they  together  make  only  three  dollars,  and  then  see. 
The  two  and  two  are  the  parts,  and  the  four  is  their 
sum,  and  your  arithmetic  and  algebra  tell  you  of 
a  mathematical  axiom  by  which  the  whole  of  any- 
thing and  all  its  parts  are  equal.  Axioms  !  Do 
you  know,  my  dear  friend,  that  there  are  men  who 
deny  the  truth  of  such  things  as  axioms  ?  You 
are  perfectly  sure,  if  you  cut  an  apple  into  any 
number  of  parts,  that  all  the  parts  together  will 
just  equal  the  apple.  But  there  are  men  who  are 
not  sure.  They  deny  everything  of  the  sort,  and 
they  defy  you  to  prove  it.  Only  a  few  years  ago 
an  Englishman  died  who  would  have  met  you  at 
just  this  point,  and  would  have  told  you  that  it 
had  not  been  satisfactorily  proved  to  his  mind  that 
two  and  two  are  equal  to  four,  or  that  there  are  any 
axioms  or  self-evident  truths.  And  that  man  was 
not  a  dunce.  He  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and 
profound  thinkers  that  England  ever  had.  The 
name  of  that  man  is  very  familiar  to  you.  You 
have  often  heard  ambitious  lecturers  quote  it  on 
the  lyceum  platform,  much  as  if  he  were  a  per- 
sonal friend  of  theirs  ;  it  was  John  Stuart  Mill.  He 
was  so  great  a  man  that  almost  all  England  felt 


ANYTHING    MAY    BE   DOUBTED.  5 

honored  when  he  once  consented  to  l)e  chosen  a 
member  of  her  parliament.  Yet  this  man,  in  the 
crowning-  effort  of  his  hfe,  in  his  work  on  Logic, 
consisting  of  three  stately  volumes,  greatly  admired 
for  their  clear  style  and  subtle  thought,  affirms  that 
for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary  two  and  two 
may  make  five  in  some  other  world.  He  says  that 
two  and  two  do  not  necessarily  make  four.  We 
wrongly  infer  that  they  do,  because  we  have  always 
seen  them  doing  it.  Some  time  we  may  see  difter- 
ently,  and  then  we  shall  be  tempted  to  make  a  dif- 
ferent inference.  We  should  not  make  any  infer- 
ence. All  we  can  truly  say  is  that  so  far  as  our 
experience  goes  two  and  two  make  four ;  it  is  not 
true  that  of  themselves  they  always  necessarily  do 
this. 

Now  the  man  who  was  not  sure  at  this  point,  of 
course  was  not  sure  at  a  great  many  other  points. 
He  saw  no  proof  that  the  soul  lives  after  the  death 
of  the  body,  no  proof  of  the  obligations  of  moral- 
ity. Religion  and  government  were  to  him  only  a 
kind  of  expediency,  and  merely  provisional  at  that. 
But  when  such  a  man  as  that  says  that  the  Bible 
has  not  been  proved  true,  or  when  any  of  his  pre- 
tentious imitators  say  it,  I  think  we  have  no  occa- 
sion to  be  disturbed  or  unsettled  in  our  minds. 
Very  likely  if  you  had  gone  to  him  and  heard  him 
talk  in  his  wise  way  on  the  subject  of  axioms,  you 
would  have  been  cauo-ht  in  the  meshes  of  his  rea- 


6  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT   OF  GOD. 

soiling,  and  would  have  come  away  doubting  that 
there  are  any  axioms.  Yet  nothing  can  be  more 
certain  than  they.  And  hence,  when  men  douljt 
the  divine  origin  of  the  Bible,  and  entangle  you  in 
their  doul)ts,  it  may  nevertheless  be  as  sure  that 
God  has  spoken  to  us  in  that  sacred  volume  as  that 
two  and  two  make  four.  If  the  keenest  thinkers 
can  doubt  the  certainty  of  the  laws  of  mathemat- 
ics, be  not  surprised  when  you  stumble  on  doubts 
concerning  the  Bible,  whether  in  other  men's  minds 
or'  your  own.  The  fault  is  not  in  the  Bible,  but 
in  those  who  doubt.  Some  mental  eccentricity,  or 
wrong  point  of  view,  or  unsuspected  power  of  sin 
in  them,  warps  their  judgment.  The  fact  that  Mr. 
Mill  and  his  followers  doubt  the  axioms  in  your 
arithmetic  does  not  cause  you  to  throw  your  arith- 
metic away ;  and  so  you  have  no  cause  to  throw 
away  your  Bible,  or  to  be  at  all  anxious  lest  it 
should  turn  out  untrue,  though  there  may  be  many 
around  you  who  deny  that  it  came  from  God.  I 
come  back,  then,  to  the  point  from  which  I  set  out, 
and  I  still  affirm  as  stoutly  as  ever  that  nothing,  not 
even  mathematical  axioms,  can  be  more  sure  than 
that  God  has  spoken  to  men  and  given  us  an  ade- 
quate record  thereof  in  our  Bible.  Men  can  doubt 
anything  however  sure,  if  they  try  to,  or  in  cer- 
tain morbid  states  of  mind.  Why  should  we  be 
alarmed,  then,  when  they  doubt  the  Bible? 

There    is  one   thing,   dear    friend,   of  which  I 


ANYTHING  MAY  BE  DOUBTED.  7 

know  that  you  are  perfectly  certain  ;  that  is  your 
own  personal  existence.  You  say  that  to  doubt  it 
would  be  the  height  of  absurdity,  and  you  won- 
deringly  ask  me  if  I  ever  heard  of  a  person  who 
doubted  his  own  existence.  Most  certainly  I 
have,  dear  friend,  I  have  heard  of  a  great  many, 
and  some  of  them  were  very  distinguished  men 
in  their  way.  They  were  not  what  we  call  crazy 
persons,  but  wholly  sane  and  full  of  fine  mental 
energy.  Yet  they  doubted  their  personal  existence. 
You  behold,  then,  what  a  sea  you  are  sailing  out 
upon,  if  you  let  yourself  be  led  away  by  those 
who  distrust  the  Bible.  The  sea  of  doubt  is  a 
troubled  and  shoreless  sea.  You  may  begin  the 
voyage,  but  you  will  never  end  it  save  by  return- 
ing to  the  point  from  which  you  set  out.  You 
say,  "  I  hear  these  men  affirming  that  the  Bible  is 
not  God's  book,  and  they  are  scholarly,  honest, 
manly  men.  I  think  I  will  go  with  them  a  little, 
as  something  in  me  prompts  me  to  do."  But  you 
forget  what  a  terrible  journey  of  unbelief  you  are 
entering  upon.  As  they  doubt  the  Bible,  and  try 
to  make  you  believe  their  doubt,  so,  as  we  have 
seen,  there  are  others  still  who  doubt  axioms  and 
try  to  make  them  believe  that  doubt ;  and  others 
still  who  doubt  their  personal  existence,  and  will 
fortify  this  last  doubt  Avith  many  plausible  argu- 
ments. Do  you  ask  me  to  name  one  of  the  men 
who  have  carried  their  skepticism  to  this  absurd 


8  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT   OF  GOD. 

extreme?  Well,  there  are  a  great  many  of  them, 
eminent  men,  scholars,  poets,  profound  thinkers, 
who  have  made  and  are  still  making  a  great  deal 
of  stir  in  the  world,  I  will  name  one,  who  seems 
to  me  to  have  been  the  foremost  of  those  in  mod- 
ern times  who  have  gone  away  into  this  kind  of 
unbelief.  His  name  was  Benedict  Spinoza,  and  he 
was  what  is  usually  called  a  pantheist.  Pantheism, 
as  the  word  implies,  is  the  doctrine  that  God  in- 
cludes all  real  existence  Avithin  himself  Nothinor 
but  God,  that  is,  really  exists.  You  and  I  have 
no  I'ight  to  think  of  ourselves  as  persons,  for  we 
are  not  persons.  We  are  only  emanations  of  God, 
and  are  still  a  part  of  him,  just  as  the  solar  rays 
are  a  part  of  the  sun,  as  the  ripples  are  a  part 
of  the  brook  on  which  we  see  them.  Our  whole 
life  is  only  an  illusion,  a  dream,  a  fancy,  the  emp- 
tiest and  vainest  of  deceptions.  In  all  the  uni- 
verse there  is  nothing  but  God,  and  he  is  the 
universe.  You  and  I  and  all  other  beings  and 
objects  are  literally  nothing,  only  as  the  drops  of 
rain  or  the  snowflakes  which  sink  into  the  ocean 
out  of  which  they  came.  You  may  have  read 
some  of  the  books  of  the  German  author  Goethe ; 
he  was  very  much  of  this  way  of  thinking.  You 
are  familiar  with  Mr.  Carlyle's  works,  with  jNIr. 
Emerson's ;  they,  too,  think  very  much  as  Goethe 
thought.  So  you  see,  surprising  as  it  is  that  a 
man  should  doul3t  his  own  personal  existence,  there 


ANYTHING  MAY  BE  DOUBTED.      '  » 

are  men  who  do  it.  And  they  are  not  stupid  and 
foolish  men.  They  are  men  who  have  many  dis- 
ciples, and  whom  multitudes  very  much  admire. 
But  I  think  most  men  and  women  are  pretty  thor- 
oughly persuaded  of  their  own  existence,  notwith- 
standing all  this  doubt  which  has  been  thrown  upon 
the  subject.  It  is  as  large  a  mass  of  doubt  as  that 
which  has  been  thrown  around  the  Bible,  and  it 
comes  for  the  most  part  from  a  far  more  respect- 
able source.  ^  think,  then,  if  such  solid  facts  as  our 
own  personal  existence  may  be  brought  into  doubt 
by  those  who  follow  their  imagination  and  their 
logic,  we  had  better  not  grow  suspicious  of  our 
Bibles  because  they,  too,  are  doubted.  We  had 
better  hold  on  to  them,  and  be  firm  in  the  faith 
that  they  are  God's  message  to  us,  till  we  find 
other  grounds  of  distrust  for  them  than  those 
^vhich  lead  on  to  the  denial  of  anything  and  every- 
thing. 

Let  us  look  at  another  fact,  the  most  solemn 
and  blessed,  as  it  is  to  me  the  most  certain  of  all 
things,  — I  mean  our  God  himself, —  let  us  look  and 
see  how  even  his  existence  has  been  doubted.  We 
have  just  seen  that  one  class  of  doubters  make  him 
the  only  real  thing,  declaring  that  men  and  worlds 
are  but  illusive  emanations  from  him  constantly 
falling  back  into  him.  Now  we  look  on  another 
class  who  take  just  the  opposite  extreme,  deny- 
ing that  there   is  a  God,  and  asserting  that  the 


10  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

only  real  thing  is  matter.  Matter,  they  say,  was 
not  created,  l)ut  is  self-existent,  eternal.  The 
universe  is  a  universe  of  material  forces.  Matter, 
taking  shape  and  moving  by  virtue  of  its  own  in- 
herent laws,  has  given  us  what  we  call  mind  and 
spirit,  —  the  ideas  out  of  which  each  man  imagines 
his  own  God,  and  so  on.  Yet  our  assurance  that 
there  is  a  God  comes  with  us  into  life.  It  is  part 
of  the  very  make-up  of  the  human  soul.  Only 
sin  and  io;norance  and  worldliness  can  obscure  it. 
The  more  pure  in  heart  we  are,  the  more  dis- 
tinctly we  see  God.  And  now  behold  how  this 
precious  and  sacred  verity  has  been  brought  into 
doubt.  Men  have  not  been  content  simply  to  be- 
lieve in  God,  but  have  tried  to  find  him  out,  to 
comprehend  him,  to  understand  him.  And  they 
have  been  so  baffled  in  what  they  have  tried  to  do 
as  first  to  doubt  that  there  is  a  God,  and  then  to 
deny  his  existence  altogether.  Do  you  wonder, 
then,  that  men  are  found  who  doubt  the  Bible? 
What  is  more  sure  than  the  existence  of  God, 
whose  existence  so  many  have  denied  ?  And  there- 
fore nothing  may  be  more  sure  than  that  the  Bible 
is  God's  book,  though  some  say  it  is  not.  Two 
and  two  make  four,  though  Stuart  Mill  doubts  it. 
We  have  each  a  personal  existence,  though  Spi- 
noza says  we  have  not.  There  is  a  God,  however 
much  men  may  den}^  all  things  but  matter.  And  so 
all  the  doubts  which  men  have  had  concerning  the 


ANYTHING   MAY  BE  DOUBTED.  11 

Bible  do  not  prove  that  it  is  untrue.  In  the  midst 
of  all  these  doubts  it  may  be  just  as  sure  as  that 
there  are  axioms,  that  you  and  I  are  persons,  that 
God  exists.  You  see,  then,  what  a  Protean  thing 
doubt  is.  It  is  all  the  time  changins^  into  sonie- 
thing  else  while  you  try  to  lay  hold  of  it.  When 
you  doubt  your  Bible  you  have  simply  gone 
down  one  step  of  the  stairway.  There  is  another 
step  below  that,  then  another,  and  then  another ; 
nor  can  you  stop  till  you  doubt  the  trustworthi- 
ness of  your  own  faculties,  and  conclude,  even  if 
there  be  such  a  thing  as  tiuth  anywhere,  that  it  is 
not  possible  for  you  ever  to  find  it. 

What  is  more  sure  to  you  than  the  solid  earth 
on  which  you  walk,  the  brooks  which  warble  at 
your  feet,  the  woods  lifting  their  glorious  arches 
and  chanting  a  perpetual  anthem  all  through  their 
solemn  aisles  ?  And  yet,  dear  friend,  there  have 
been,  and  still  are,  men  who  doubt  the  reality  of 
an  external  world.  "  What  a  strange  doubt," 
you  say.  It  is  strange,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
uncommon.  There  are  many  men  now  living,  in 
this  country  and  elsewhere,  who  will  tell  you  that 
they  believe  in  ideas,  in  the  sensations  and  expe- 
riences of  their  own  minds,  but  the  existence  of 
matter,  of  anything  external  to  them,  is  yet  to  be 
proved.  There  was  not  long  ago  in  Germany  a 
man  named  Hegel  who  taus^ht  somethins;  of  this 
sort,    and   he   has    to-day   many   disciples.       He 


12  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

would  tell  you  that  your  own  thinking  is  all 
which  makes  anything  real  to  j^ou.  For  you 
there  is  an  outward  world  only  because  you  think 
there  is.  You  make  your  own  world,  your  own 
God,  your  own  friends,  and  wealth  and  poverty, 
by  your  thinking.  Cease  to  think  that  they  are 
3^ours,  and  so  fer  as  you  are  concerned  they  have 
no  longer  any  existence.  There  are  men  now 
living,  whose  names  you  have  heard  so  often  that 
I  will  not  repeat  them,  who  say  that  we  can  never 
know  anything  outside  of  ourselves.  We  can 
know  what  we  inwardly  experience,  —  our  sensa- 
tions, our  thoughts,  or  feelings  and  desires,  and 
that  is  all.  Even  our  sensations  are  limited  to 
appearances,  constantly  changing  phenomena ; 
they  never  extend  to  the  fixed  substances,  the 
underlying  causes  of  things.  You  think  you  put 
a  real  coal  of  fire  to  some  real  gunpowder,  and 
that  you  thereupon  see  a  real  flash,  of  which  the 
fire  is  the  cause.  But  this  is  only  your  own 
thinking;  it  took  place  wholly  within  yourself; 
it  proves  nothing  outside  of  you.  You  have  no 
right  to  say  that  the  coal  caused  the  flash,  or  that 
there  was  any  flash,  or  powder,  or  fire  ;  you  know 
only  what  took  place  in  your  own  mind,  how  it 
seemed  to  you,  what  your  impressions  were. 
"Silly  men,"  you  say,  "to  doubt  what  is  so  real." 
Yet  they  will  argue  very  acutely  and  very  phiu- 
sibly  to  establish  their  doubt.     If  you  read  their 


ANYTHING  MAY  BE  DOUBTED.  13 

books  much,  or  hear  them  lecture,  or  talk  with 
them,  just  as  likely  as  not  you  will  forget  your 
own  common  sense,  and  be  led  on  step  by  step 
into  their  subtleties  till  you  are  just  as  much  in 
doubt  of  an  external  world  as  they  are. 

You  see,  then,  what  a  large  number  of  perfectly 
sure  things  there  are  which  you  can  come  to  be  in 
doubt  of,  if  you  once  let  yourself  fall  into  the 
habit  of  doubting.  You  can  doubt  that  there  is 
any  material  world  about  you,  that  there  is  any 
God,  that  you  are  yourself  a  real  person  ;  you  can 
doubt  that  there  are  any  such  things  as  axioms  in 
mathematics,  that  your  own  faculties  of  mind  are 
trustworthy.  And  all  along  in  this  process  of 
doubting  you  will  find  yourself,  speaking  after  the 
manner  of  men,  in  very  good  company.  Surely, 
then,  my  dear  friend,  you  will  not  conclude  that 
the  Bible  is  untrue,  even  if  you  should  hear  a 
great  many  learned  and  ingenious  men  say  that  it 
is.  According  to  all  analogy,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  a  great  many  things  may  be  true  which 
learned  and  ingenious  men  doubt.  Are  you  pre- 
pared to  go  all  lengths  with  such  men?  They 
Avill  not  deny  to  you  the  divine  origin  of  the  Bible 
any  more  than  they  Avill  deny  a  hundred  other 
most  real  and  precious  things.  Doubt  is  like  that 
fire  sometimes  seen  in  low,  swampy  places  by 
night,  which  leads  away  those  who  follow  it  till 
they  are  lost  and  perish.     When  you  quit  your 


14  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

Bible,  no  longer  believing  it  to  be  the  sure  word 
of  God,  and  choose  the  path  of  doubt,  experience 
writes,  "  All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here," 
over  the  gate  by  which  you  start  into  that  path. 

You  have  heard  the  story  of  the  Sibyl  who  came 
to  one  of  the  early  Roman  kings  with  the  prophetic 
books.  She  ofiered  to  sell  them  to  him,  but  asked 
a  very  high  price,  which  he  refused  to  pay,  where- 
upon she  went  off  and  burnt  a  portion  of  them. 
Then  she  came  back  to  the  king  and  offered  him 
what  were  left;  but  he  again  refused,  and  again 
she  went  and  burnt  some  more  of  them.  Aoain 
the  third  time  she  came  back,  now  bringing  only 
three  books  of  the  nine  she  had  first  brought,  still 
urging  the  king  to  buy  them,  and  demanding  the 
original  price .  Her  strange  behavior  induced  him  to 
accept  her  terms  ;  otherwise  the  whole  of  the  Sibyl- 
line books,  afterwards  so  dear  to  the  Roman 
people,  would  have  been  lost.  Thus  it  is,  dear 
friend,  that  certain  great  truths,  — the  Bible,  your 
own  existence,  God,  things  which  are  self-evident, 
—  come  to  you.  You  can  have  them  all  by  believ- 
ing, and  by  doubting  you  can  lose  them  all.  If 
you  have  already  doubted  some  of  them,  stop 
where  you  are,  as  the  Roman  king  at  length 
stopped,  and  retrace  your  way  to  the  point  at 
which  you  began  to  doubt,  that  all  the  treasures 
may  still  be  yours  ;  for  these  great  truths  are  not 
like   the    Sibyl's    books,  —  they   have   not   been 


ANYTHING   MAY  BE   DOUBTED.  15 

burnt,  nor  can  they  be  destroyed,  and  however 
you  may  have  let  go  your  hold  on  nwy  of  them, 
they  will  come  back  to  you  through  Him  in  whom 
all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  are  hid. 
Be  not  disturbed  by  any  voices  of  doubt  concern- 
ing the  Bible,  since  those  same  voices  would  lead 
you  on  to  doubt  what  is  truest  and  most  precious 
in  life ;  but  in  the  midst  of  them  all,  with  a  vast 
multitude  of  the  best  and  greatest  men,  and  in 
obedience  to  the  central  instinct  of  your  own  soul, 
still  say :  "  Nothing  can  be  more  sure  than  that 
God  has  spoken  to  men,  and  that  our  Bible  is  such 
a  record  as  we  need  of  what  he  has  said." 


CHAPTER   11. 

GOD   DESIRES   TO   REVEAL   HIMSELF. 

"  Nothing  can  be  more  sure  than  that  God  has 
spoken  to  men,  and  that  our  Bible  is  such  a  record 
as  we  need  of  what  he  has  said." 

I  do  not  pretend  that  this  statement  was  posi- 
tively proved  in  what  I  said  concerning  it  in  the 
chapter  before  this.  But  I  think  some  steps  were 
taken  in  the  way  to  positive  proof.  At  least  it 
was  shown,  I  think,  that  we  have  no  more  reason 
to  doubt  the  Bible  on  account  of  what  has  been 
said  against  it  than  we  have  to  doubt  what  are 
known  as  absolute  certainties  on  account  of  what 
has  been  said  against  them.  It  does  not  shake  our 
faith  in  the  mathematical  axioms  that  two  and  two 
are  equal  to  four,  and  the  whole  of  anything  is 
equal  to  the  sum  of  all  its  parts,  because  certain 
philosophers  have  denied  that  such  axioms  are 
necessarily  true.  It  has  been  stoutly  denied  that 
we  have  any  personal  existence,  yet  w^e  know  that 
we  have.  It  has  been  ingeniously  argued  that  we 
cannot  prove  an  external  world,  yet  we  know  that 
such  a  world  exists.  Some  have  claimed  that  mat- 
ter is  the  only  reality,  yet  we  know  that  there  are 
ideas  and  spirit.  Others  have  claimed  that  ideas 
16 


GOB  BESIBES   TO   EEVEAL   HIMSELF.  17 

are  all  there  is,  yet  we  know  that  besides  these 
there  is  both  spirit  and  matter.  Seeing  how  all 
these  solid  realities  have  been  doubted,  we  are  not 
disposed  to  cast  away  our  Bibles  on  account  of 
what  has  been  said  ao-ainst  them. 

I  now  take  up  another  point,  which  is,  that  God 
must  needs  desire  to  reveal  himsef  to  men,  and 
to  provide  for  an  authentic  record  of  that  revela- 
tion. Can  you  think  of  anything  more  strange 
than  that  God  should  shut  himself  away  from  men, 
and  really  choose  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
them?  Consider  what  our  idea  of  God  is,  — that 
necessary  idea  of  Him  which  we  all  bring  with  us 
into  life.  He  is  our  Father.  That  word  "  Father" 
comes  the  nearest  of  any,  perhaps,  to  a  full  expres- 
sion of  his  character ;  yet  we  must  add  other  words 
in  order  to  get  the  whole.  Think  what  an  earthly 
father  is,  —  one  who  fills  out  the  meaning  of  the 
word.  Does  he  willingly  let  his  children  get 
separated  from,  and  allow  all  intercourse  between 
them  and  him  to  cease?  Certainly  not.  He 
knows  that  they  are  dependent  on  him,  and  he 
wishes  to  provide  for  their  daily  wants  ;  he  knows 
that  temptations  to  evil  are  all  around  them,  and 
he  wishes  to  save  them  out  of  those  temptations ; 
he  knows  that  they  are  often  disinclined  to  strug- 
gle up  the  hard  path  of  virtue  and  truth,  and  he 
wishes  to  stinmlate  them  and  cheer  them  on  in 
that  path.      Now  take    this  good  earthly  father. 


18  ^OT  OF  MAJS,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

and  imagine  all  his  love  for  his  children  infinite]}' 
increased,  and  you  come  to  our  idea  of  what  God 
is  to  all  men.  What  is  the  earthly  father's  love  to 
the  heavenly  Father's?  If  the  earthly  father  so 
clings  to  his  children,  is  loth  to  be  separated  from 
them,  does  not  forget  them  but  often  visits  them 
after  they  have  gone  out  from  under  his  roof,  shall 
the  heavenly  Father  wholly  leave  His  children  to 
themselves?  Shall  he  stop  all  intercourse  with 
us,  send  us  no  message,  not  even  a  letter  to 
assure  us  of  his  remembrance  and  love  ?  Cer- 
tainly this  would  be  strange.  Nothing  could  be 
stranger.  We  must  give  up  that  necessary  idea 
which  we  have  of  God  as  a  Father,  and  think  of 
him  as  more  heartless  than  the  worst  earthly 
parent  can  be,  if  he  never  has  any  wish  to  speak 
to  us  or  to  have  us  come  near  to  him. 

God  is  not  only  the  ideal  and  infinite  Father, 
but  all  the  elements  of  a  true  motherhood  are  in 
him.  Thus  we  think  of  him.  Such  is  the  idea 
of  him  with  which  we  are  born  into  the  world. 
Let  a  mother's  child  be  separated  from  her,  and 
let  her  fear  that  he  may  be  lost.  What  is  there 
that  she  will  not  do  to  recover  him?  To  what 
part  of  the  world  will  she  not  go,  what  pleasures 
not  give  up,  what  dangers  and  hardships  not  en- 
counter? Her  reason  goes  out  of  her  when  all 
hope  that  she  shall  again  see  her  child  or  know 
his  ftite  is  at  an  end.     Most  surely,  then,  arguing 


GOB  DE6IUES   TO    UEVEAL   HIMSELF.  19 

from  what  God  is,  from  what  we  know  that  he 
must  be,  it  would  be  a  wholly  strange  and  unac- 
countable thing  that  he  should  not  desire  to  reveal 
himself  to  men.  Do  you  expect  the  father  and 
mother  to  go  after  their  lost  children?  to  write 
them  loving  letters  of  sympathy,  counsel,  and 
warning,  when  they  are  away  at  school  or  trying 
to  take  care  of  themselvQS  in  life  ?  Certainly  you 
expect  it  of  them.  And  you  cannot  expect  any- 
thing less  from  God.  You  naturally  expect  a 
great  deal  more  from  him ;  more  thouo^htful- 
ness,  more  heart-yearning,  more  sending,  and 
writing,  and  coming,  and  doing, — infinitely  more. 
How  strange  a  thing  that  God  should  put  us  here 
in  this  Avorld,  and  then  desire  to  have  no  more 
intercourse  with  us  ! 

But  this  desire  of  God  to  be  revealed  to  us 
must  be  vastly  stronger  in  view  of  our  sore  need 
of  such  a  revelation.  Not  only  has  he  the  fatherly 
and  motherly  feeling,  but  the  sentiment  of  pity  in 
him  is  infinite.  We  are  more  than  his  children ; 
we  are  his  estranged  and  sinnins:  children.  If 
there  is  no  other  eye  to  pity,  surely  he  will  pity ; 
he  will  save  if  there  be  no  other  arm  to  save. 
He  sees  how  unhappy  we  are  amid  the  things  of 
the  world,  with  which  we  seek  to  please  our- 
selves. Our  consciences  trouble  us ;  we  have 
fearful  apprehensions  of  evil  to  come ;  we  are 
full  of  unrest,  yearning  discontentedly  for  we  can 


20  ^OT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

hardly  tell  what,  amid  all  earthly  joys.  He 
knows  that  this  wretchedness  in  us  may  go  on 
increasing  till  it  shall  become  a  fiery  and  endless 
torture.  And  this  misery  is  due  to  our  separation 
from  him.  There  is  a  child-nature  in  us  answer- 
ing to  the  fatherhood  in  him.  It  is  this  divine 
nature  in  us  which  makes  us  so  wretched  amid 
worldly  delights.  It  lives  on,  a  kind  of  living 
death,  —  dead,  yet  groaning,  in  the  midst  of  tres- 
passes and  sins.  It  cries  out,  though  with  a  be- 
wildered, unknowing  cry,  for  the  living  God. 
Shall  that  image  of  God  in  us,  that  spirit  which 
he  breathed  into  man  at  the  beginning,  be  recov- 
ered to  him  while  it  is  capable  of  such  return,  or 
shall  it  be  let  alone  till  it  cannot  possibly  be 
brought  back?  Surely,  we  say,  God  will  not 
keep  away  from  those  who  are  in  such  a  state. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  the  Bible  to  tell  us  that  he 
is  a  God  of  compassions ;  he  is,  as  our  own  nat- 
ural and  necessary  idea  of  him  tells  us.  Since  he 
is  God,  he  must  desire  to  interpose ;  since  he  is 
God,  the  God  who  is  love,  he  must  desire  to 
reveal  himself  to  us  and  save  us  from  our  sins 
while  salvation  is  possible. 

When  a  ship  is  lost  at  sea  w^e  send  out  other 
ships  along  her  track  in  the  hope  that  she  may  be 
found.  Surely,  then,  God  will  do  something  to 
recover  his  lost  children  in  this  world.  Years 
iicro   Sir   John   Franklin  was   lost   in   the  Arctic 


GOD  DESIBES   TO  REVEAL   HIMSELF.  21 

seas.  You  remember,  or  have  read,  how  this 
country  and  England,  moved  by  the  appeals  of 
his  noble  wife,  sent  men  and  ships  to  search  for 
him.  And  shall  we  expect  God  to  do  nothing  for 
his  children  who  have  strayed  far  from  him,  who 
are  wretched  and  growing  more  wretched  in  their 
bondage  to  sin,  and  who  will  reach  the  land  of 
hopelessness  if  permitted  to  go  on?  He  will 
interpose;  he  will  reveal  himself;  he  will  speak ; 
he  will  have  the  story  of  his  coming  so  written 
down  that  all  may  read  and  believe  it.  Not  only 
his  own  fatherly  nature,  but  our  wretched  condi- 
tion will  lead  him  to  do  it.  He  will  do  it  miless 
there  ])e  some  obstacle  in  the  way  which  his  own 
omnipotence  cannot  overcome. 

If  there  ^vere  a  wrecked  steamer  on  our  coast, 
Avith  a  large  numljer  of  our  friends  and  relatives 
on  board  of  it,  think  you  we  could  stand  on  the 
rocks  and  look  off  indifferently  upon  it?  How 
we  should  signal  those  friends  to  hold  out !  how 
we  should  launch  our  life-boats,  or  shoot  to  them 
the  lines  and  cables  with  which  to  help  themselves* 
ashore  !  Nothing  but  utter  powerlessness  on  our 
part  would  let  us  see  one  of  them  drown.  And 
is  God  less  desirous  of  saving  the  imperilled  than 
we  are?  We  act  on  the  low  plane  of  the  tem- 
poral life,  he  on  the  high  plane  of  the  eternal. 
What  is  the  death  from  which  we  would  save 
those  wrecked  voyagers  to    that   from  which  he 


22  ^Or   OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

Avould  save  all  strajn'ng  and  sinning  souls?  He 
knows  that  he  is  our  life  and  our  home,  but  he 
sees  us  separated  from  him,  and  wandering  in  the 
midst  of  peril,  far  away.  No  matter  that  it  is 
our  own  fault.  We  have  forsaken  God  ;  but  God 
would  cease  to  be  God  if  he  should  forsake  us. 
He  will  at  least  make  a  way  for  us  to  escape. 
We  are  not  the  less  wretched,  but  the  more,  be- 
cause we  are  guilty  and  ill-deserving. 

All  our  sinning  against  him  cannot  make  him 
cease  to  be  the  compassionate  Father  which  he  is. 
Look  at  our  case  any  way  you  will,  and  it  is  clear 
that  God  nmst  desire  with  a  very  great  desire  to 
reveal  himself  to  us  in  his  saving  mercy.  If  there 
be  an}'^  claims  of  justice  m  the  way,  any  condem- 
nation, any  honor  of  his  own  name  and  throne,  lie 
will  provide  for  these.  He  will  put  all  obstacles 
out  of  the  way,  so  far  as  his  infinite  power  and 
wisdom  enable  him  to ;  and  he  will  come  to  us  in 
the  plenitude  of  his  ^^earning  love,  and  will  gra- 
ciously do  all  that  he  wisely  and  consistently  can, 
to  restore  the  lost  connection  between  us  and  him- 
self. As  surely  as  God  is  God,  and  we  his  chil- 
dren have  gone  away  from  him  into  woe  and  sin  ; 
as  surely  as  we  need  to  be  recovered  into  the 
ways  of  truth  and  blessedness,  in  which  he  our 
divine  Father  forever  walks,  so  surely  he  must 
desire  to  interpose,  —  to  speak  to  us  the  word  of 
counsel  and  warning  ;  to  do  whatever  the  nature  of 


GOD  DESIRES   TO   REVEAL   HIMSELF.         23 

things  will  permit  him  to  do  that  Ave  may  be  re- 
stored to  his  own  holy  and  blessed  paths.  Does 
the  earthly  father's  yearning  bring  him  out  to 
meet  the  prodigal  son,  and  shall  not  God  come 
out  to  us  ?  Does  the  woman  sweep  her  house  for 
the  lost  piece  of  silver,  and  shall  he  not  search 
for  us  as  with  broom  and  candle  ?  Does  the  shep- 
herd go  after  the  sheep  on  the  mountain,  and  shall 
God  willingly  let  any  soui  wander  away  and  be 
lost? 

We  expect  God  to  reveal  himself  to  men,  not 
only  because  he  as  our  Father  desires  to,  and  we 
need  that  he  should,  but  because  he  hates  sin  and 
desires  to.  increase  the  sum  of  holiness  in  his  do- 
minions by  all  possible  means.  He  is  himself 
holy,  and  he  would  see  all  his  children  conformed 
to  that  law  of  holiness  which  guides  him  in  his 
whole  conduct.  There  are  not  two  laws,  —  one 
for  him  and  another  for  us.  There  is  l>ut  one  law. 
He  lives  and  reigns  that  holiness  may  abound  ;  and 
all  men  were  created  for  this  one  high  end.  So 
much  the  very  idea  of  God  which  we  all  naturally 
have  forces  us  to  believe.  And  therefore  we  must 
believe  that  he  does  not  wish  to  stay  away  from 
us,  but  desires  to  reveal  himself  to  us;  for  we 
know  that  we  have  all  sadly  swerved  from  the  law 
of  perfect  holiness  and  truth,  and  need  some  divine 
power  to  bring  us  back  to  it.  Whether  we  have 
any  Bibles  or  not,  we  know  as  often  as  Ave  reflect 


24  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

that  there  are  wicked  ways  in  us,  and  that  God 
alone  can  lead  us  in  the  way  everlasting.  ^lay  I 
not  therefore  venture  to  repeat  with  some  assurance 
my  first  proposition,  "that  nothing  can  be  more  sure 
than  that  God  has  spoken  to  men  ?  "  Does  not  this 
seem  very  sure,  though  not  positively  proved,  in 
view  of  God's  strong  desire  to  reveal  himself  to  us  ? 
—  a  desire  which  he  must  feel ,  both  in  virtue  of  his 
fatherly  nature  and  on  account  of  our  perishing 
need  of  succor,  as  also  that  he  may  turn  us  from 
sin  to  holiness,  which  is  the  highest  and  last  end 
of  all  that  he  does?  Certainly,  I  think  we  are 
ready  to  admit  the  revelation  as  a  fact,  though  the 
nature  of  it  may  need  yet  to  be  considered. 

The  assertion  of  this  chapter  is  that  "  God  must 
needs  desire  to  reveal  himself  to  men,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  an  authentic  record  of  that  revelation." 
Let  us  look  a  little  at  the  second  part  of  the  state- 
ment,—  the  authentic  record.  Of  course,  the 
record  is  nothing  but  for  the  facts  recorded ;  and 
the  whole  value  of  the  record,  that  is  of  our  Bible, 
lies  in  the  assumption  that  it  is  an  authentic  ac- 
count of  the  special  ways  in  which  God  has  re- 
vealed himself  to  our  sinful  race.  "  But  why  these 
special  revelations  requiring  him  to  provide  some 
extraordinary  record  of  them?"  you  may  ask. 
Why  is  not  nature  a  sufficient  revelation  of  God 
to  men?  Nature  can  tell  us  something  of  God, 
but  not  that  which  we  most  need  to  know.     She 


GOD  DESIRES   TO  REVEAL   HIMSELF.         25 

cannot  reveal  to  us  his  moral  attributes,  though 
she  may  show  us  something  of  those  wTiich  are 
natural.  Nature  tells  us  that  God  is  powerful, 
since  he  makes  and  preserves  the  world ;  that  he 
is  wise,  since  he  everywhere  adapts  means  to  ends. 
But  she  does  not  tell  us  that  he  is  gracious,  that 
he  forgives  sin,  that  he  is  compassionate  and  mer- 
ciful ;  she  does  not  clearly  tell  us  that  he  is  good 
or  just.  If  we  attempt  to  prove  from  nature  that 
God  is  good,  we  find  many  facts  which  of  them- 
selves go  to  show  that  he  is  not  good.  Why  does 
he  send  pestilence  and  fiimine  on  the  innocent? 
Why  do  so  many  persons  die  almost  as  soon  as 
they  begin  to  live  !  So,  too,  we  need  something 
besides  nature  or  history  to  prove  the  justice  of 
God.  We  see  the  wicked  prosper,  and  the  right- 
eous under  calamity.  Nature  seems  to  reward 
those  who  are  evil,  and  to  punish  those  who  are 
good.  She  does  not  vindicate  even  the  righteous- 
ness of  God.  And  what  can  she  tell  us  of  his  pity, 
of  his  fatherly  tenderness,  of  his  mercy  and  par- 
doning love?  God  himself  must  speak  to  men  in 
order  to  assure  them  of  these.  He  must  speak  to 
his  children  who  are  made  in  his  own  image,  who 
are  themselves  capable  of  the  moral  emotions 
which  he  feels.  Only  men  created  after  his  like- 
ness can  know  what  he  means  when  he  speaks  of 
his  grace,  of  his  forgiving  and  renewing  mercy. 
It  is  far  above  nature  ;  only  men  to  whom  God 


.26  ^<^'''   OF  MAN,    HUT   OF  GOD. 

himself  comes  can  understand  it,  and  such  alone 
can  give  a  true  account  of  it  to  others.  God  must 
forever  be  the  unknown  God  unless  there  are  men 
to  whom  he  directly  speaks,  and  whom  he  enables 
to  write  down  what  he  says  for  other  men  to  read. 
And  we  cannot  be  wholly  satisfied  with  what  in- 
spired men  have  seen  and  heard,  however  accu- 
rately they  have  described  it  all.  AVe  demand 
a  higher  revelation  than  that  which  comes  by  any 
merely  human  agency.  Only  when  the  Word 
becomes  flesh,  when  God  enters  into  humanity  and 
declares  himself  the  Saviour  of  every  man,  do  we 
see  the  Father  as  we  have  yearned  that  we  might. 
If  there  have  been  no  holy  men  speaking  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  our  case  demands 
that  there  should  be  ;  and  God,  who  longs  to  save 
us,  must  desire  such  an  order  of  men.  And  if 
God  has  spoken,  we  demand,  and  he  must  desire, 
that  there  should  be  accurate  pens  to  record  what 
he  has  said.  And  if  God  himself  has  not  yet 
come  and  spoken  in  the  flesh,  we  are  all  the  time 
expecting  that  he  will ;  for  our  lost  state  is  such 
as  to  require  the  most  perfect  possible  revelation 
of  his  love ;  and  such  a  revelation  he,  as  our  in- 
finite Father,  must  above  all  things  else  desire  to 
give  to  us. 

You  know  Mrs.  Hemans's  familiar  nursery  hymn 
of  the  boy  in  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  who  was 
burned  to  death  by  standing  at  the  post  where 


GOD  DESTBES   TO   REVEAL   HIMSELF.         27 

his  father  had  put  him.  That  child's  faith  in  his 
father  was  unfaltering,  —  a  beautiful  and  heroic 
trust.  What  a  tribute  to  the  father's  goodness 
and  fidelity  it  was  !  The  boy  did  not  know  that 
his  father  had  been  slain  ;  supposed  him  to  be  still 
alive,  and  therefore  he  felt  perfectly  safe  in  obey- 
ing orders  and  waiting  for  that  father  to  brins^  him 
relief.  But  the  God  who  is  our  Father  is  not  dead. 
He  is  just  what  our  own  highest  idea  of  him  makes 
him  to  be,  — the  loving  and  ever-living  Father  of 
us  all.  He  either  has  come  or  he  will  come ;  for 
he  knows  our  peril  better  than  we  do,  and  our 
most  childlike  faith  that  he  will  succor  us  is  as 
nothing  to  his  infinite  desire  to  bring  us  help.  It 
is  related  of  a  famous  army  officer  of  England,  that 
while  he  was  but  a  child  his  father  one  day  left 
him  on  London  Bridge,  telling  him  to  stay  there 
till  he  should  come  back  for  him.  The  father  went 
on  his  errands,  became  so  absorbed  as  to  wholly 
forget  his  promise  ;  returned  home  in  the  evening 
and  was  quietly  reading  when,  missing  the  boy 
and  asking  after  him,  he  was  told  that  he  had  not 
been  seen  throughout  the  day.  At  once  he  be- 
thought him,  and  seizing  his  hat  said,  "I  know 
where  he  is,  and  I  will  go  for  him."  He  went  to 
the  bridge,  and  there  the  boy  was  waiting  for  him 
to  come.  Dear  friend,  could  that  child  so  trust 
his  forgetful  father,  and  cannot  we  trust  our  God 
who  never  forgets  ?     Surely  we  will  not  withhold 


28  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

from  him  the  tribute  which  the  child  gave  to  an 
earthly  parent.  He  has  not  left  men  desolate 
through  all  these  thousands  of  years.  They  have 
needed  his  succor,  and  he  has  had  an  infinite 
yearning  to  give  it  to  them.  How  we  misunder- 
stand him,  and  what  a  grievous  wrong  we  do  to 
his  fatherly  feelings  if  we  say  that  he  has  shut  us 
out  from  his  presence,  and  has  no  desire  that  we 
should  again  look  on  his  face. 

Those  who  have  read  Mr.  Stanley's  account  of 
his  journey  through  the  "  Dark  Continent,"  re- 
member what  a  sad  case  he  was  in  as  he  neared 
the  western  coast,  and  how  implicitly  he  relied 
on  the  friendly  aid  of  strangers  living  at  Em- 
bomma  to  save  him  and  his  party  from  impending 
death.  They  had  turned  away  from  the  terrible 
river,  and  had  left  the  brave  little  boat,  the  "  Lady 
Alice,"  brought  all  the  way  from  England,  "  to 
bleach  and  rot  to  dust."  At  first  they  tried  to 
march  overland  to  the  coast,  but  after  a  little  gave 
up  in  utter  despair.  They  had  reached  a  small 
village  of  savages,  and  the  account  says  :  ''  March- 
ing through  the  one  street  of  the  village  in 
melancholy  and  silent  procession,  voiceless  as 
sphinxes,  we  felt  our  way  down  into  a  deep  gully, 
and  crawled  up  again  to  the  level  of  the  village 
site,  and  camped  about  two  hundred  yards  away. 
They  could  go  no  further ;  relief  must  come  to 
them  or  they  must  die.     The  leader  of  the  party 


GOD  DESIRES   TO  REVEAL   HIMSELF.         29 

now  wrote  a  letter,  addressed  to  any  gentleman 
who  speaks  English  at  Embomma,"  in  which  he 
said  :  "  I  have  arrived  at  this  place  from  Zanzibar 
with  one  hundred  and  fifteen  souls,  —  men, 
women,  and  children.  We  are  now  in  a  state  of 
imminent  starvation.  We  can  buy  nothing  from 
the  natives.  ...  I  do  not  know  you;  but  am 
told  that  there  is  an  Englishman  at  Embomma, 
and,  as  you  are  a  Christian,  I  beg  you  not  to  dis- 
regard my  request."  He  then  tells  what  his  most 
urgent  needs  are,  and  adds,  "  The  supplies  must 
arrive  within  two  days,  or  I  may  have  a  fearful 
time  of  it  among  the  dying."  His  confidence 
proved  not  to  be  misplaced.  Sooner  than  they 
had  dared  hope,  and  while  they  were  struggling 
forward,  "  haggard,  woebegone  invalids,  with 
bloated  faces,  but  terribly  angular  bodies,"  the 
messengers  reappeared,  bringing  more  than  had 
been  sent  for,  and  the  cry  arose,  "  It  is  true  !  it  is 
true  !  food  !  food,  at  last !  We  are  saved,  thank 
God !  "  Dear  friends,  what  was  the  faith  which 
Stanley  had  in  English  generosity  to  that  which 
we  should  have  in  our  gracious  and  loving  God  ! 
We  need  not  apprise  him  that  we  are  without 
hope  in  the  world ;  for  he  knows  it  much  better 
than  we.  We  need  not  try  to  awaken  his  sym- 
pathy :  he  yearns  to  help  us  more  than  we  long  for 
help.  He  has  helped  us.  He  has  come  unto  us. 
His  fatherly  desire  to  rescue  us  would  not  let  him 


30  -ZVOr   OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

do  otherwise.  As  sure  as  he  is  God,  and  we  are 
his  famished  children,  there  is  somewhere  bread 
which  he  has  sent  from  heaven,  —  somewliere  the 
word  which  he  has  spoken  and  which  is  the  life 
and  light  of  men. 


CHAPTER   III. 

GOD   CAN   KEVEAL   HIMSELF, 

According  to  the  necessary  idea  which  we  have 
of  God,  he  must  desire  to  reveal  himself  to  men : 
he  is  our  Father,  who  would  not  be  separated  from 
his  children j  who  especially  yearns  to  come  and 
save  us  out  of  the  sins  in  which  we  are  wandering. 

But  in  order  that  God  may  reveal  himself  to  us 
he  must  work  a  miracle.  The  revelation  is  itself 
a  miracle,  —  the  one  comprehensive  miracle  in 
which  all  others  that  we  have  to  do  with  are 
included.  Having  seen  that  God  desires  to  be 
revealed  to  men,  our  next  question  is,  whether  or 
not  he  can  thus  reveal  himself,  —  can  he  do  that 
which,  by  the  very  necessity  of  the  case,  is  essen- 
tially miraculous?  What  is  a  miracle?  It  is 
something  which  men  see,  and  which  they  cannot 
account  for  apart  from  the  immediate  agency  of 
God.  The  creation  of  the  world,  if  we  had  been 
there  to  see  it,  would  have  been  to  us  a  stupen- 
dous miracle.  The  upholding  of  nature  in  all  her 
movements  and  processes,  if  we  could  see  that  she 
is  upheld  of  God,  would  be  to  us  a  perpetual 
miracle.  Anything  is  a  miracle  which  God  hnn- 
self  manifestly  does ;   and  therefore  the  question 

31 


32  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

whether  he  can  reveal  himself,  as  he  desires  to,  is 
the  question  Avhether  he  can  do  what  is  miracu- 
lous. The  revelation  of  God  to  men,  whatever 
shape  it  takes,  must  be  a  miracle  so  far  as  it  is 
real.  Where  there  is  no  miracle  there  is  no  rev- 
elation. 

You  see,  then,  my  dear  friend,  assuming  that 
our  Bible  is  a  record  of  God's  revelation  of  him- 
self to  men,  why  we  should  not  be  at  all  surprised 
that  it  is  a  story  of  miracles  from  beginning  to 
end.  Indeed,  miracles  are  the  first  things  we 
look  for  in  it ;  and  if  we  missed  these  we  should 
throw  it  aside  as  not  the  revelation  we  are  seek- 
ing. There  have  been  persons,  you  know,  who 
have  tried  to  explain  away  miracles.  They  all 
admit  that  the  Bible  is  in  the  main  a  true  history ; 
but  they  try  to  account  for  the  miracles  in  it  on 
natural  principles.  They  say  that  the  walls  of 
Jericho  fell  down  owing  to  the  vibratory  motion 
which  the  marching  of  the  host  about  the  city, 
and  the  blowing  of  the  horns,  gave  to  them. 
They  say  that  Christ  did  not  walk  on  the  sea,  but 
along  its  edge,  whence  he  reached  down  his  hand 
and  saved  Peter.  They  say  that  Lazarus  was  not 
really  raised,  but  that  some  of  Christ's  friends 
started  a  report  to  that  effect  after  the  crucifixion. 
Thus  have  these  critics  g-one  throuijh  the  Bible. 
Anything  which  they  cannot  possibly  account  for 
on  natural  principles  they  throw  out.     What  they 


GOD    CAN  REVEAL    HIMSELF.  33 

cannot  plausibly  explain  they  often  seek  to  ac- 
count for  in  the  most  absurd  and  puerile  manner. 
They  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  writers  were 
mistaken ;  that  they  admitted  ill-founded  rumors 
into  their  narrative  ;  that  they  exaggerated ;  that 
in  their  enthusiasm  they  said  things  which  our 
cooler  judgment  must  reject. 

How  stranore  that  men  should  take  so  much 
pains  to  throAv  out  of  the  Bible  just  that  we  should 
expect  to  find  in  it,  —  that  which  we  first  of  all 
look  for,  which  is  involved  in  the  very  idea  of  a 
revelation  from  God,  without  which  we  can  never 
have  a  revelation  !  You  might  as  well  take  all 
the  liofht  out  of  the  sun  and  still  call  it  the  sun,  as 
all  the  miracles  out  of  a  revelation  and  still  call  it 
a  revelation.  It  is  not  the  book  which  is  full  of 
miraculous  accounts,  but  that  which  is  without 
them,  which  has  no  title  to  our  belief  or  respect 
while  it  claims  to  be  from  God.  If  it  is  from 
God,  it  will  speak  of  the  works  of  God,  which 
are  miracles ;  for  in  no  other  way  can  it  reveal 
God  to  us.  When  God  comes  among  men,  it  is 
that  he  may  be  made  manifest  to  them,  not  that 
he  may  continue  to  be  the  unknown  God. 

There  are  earthly  princes  who  travel  incognito 
among  their  subjects  or  in  foreign  lands.  But  do 
they  do  this  from  any  desire  to  reveal  themselves  ? 
Certainly  not.  They  act  from  just  the  opposite 
motive.       They    desire    to    conceal    themselves. 


34  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

They  do  not  wish  it  to  be  known  Avho  they  are, 
l6st  they  should  be  annoyed  with  attentions ;  lest 
they  should  miss  the  leisure  and  enjoyment  which 
they  seek ;  lest  they  should  fail  to  see  the  people 
in  their  common,  everyday  condition.  Of  course 
they  do  not  wish  to  be  revealed ;  to  have  those 
among  whom  they  go  know  Avho  they  are.  In 
the  same  way  spies  and  detectives,  policemen  in 
citizen's  clothes,  go  about.  They  do  not  wish  to 
be  revealed,  but  to  be  hidden,  that  they  may  fer- 
ret out  some  crime,  or  mature  some  mischief  or 
conspiracy  which  they  are  planning.  The  work- 
ers of  iniquity,  and  the  officers  of  human  law, 
hide  themselves.  But  God  is  not  a  detective,  nor 
a  spy,  nor  an  earthly  prince.  We  know  very 
well  that  we  cannot  hide  our  faults  from  him. 
And  his  object  in  coming  is  to  deliver,  to  warn, 
to  counsel,  and  to  save.  Shall  we  ever  annoy  him 
wath  out  attentions?  Most  surely  we  shall  not. 
He  knows  all  about  us  before  he  comes.  He 
comes  to  sympathize  with  us,  to  assure  us  that  he 
is  our  loving  Father,  and  the  more  we  throng 
about  him  and  besiege  him  for  favors  the  better 
pleased  with  us  he  is.  Occasionally  a  great  king, 
or  queen,  or  an  ex-president  travels  openly  so  as 
to  be  seen  and  honored  of  all.  Thus  God  does 
for  our  sake,  and  thus  alone  can  he  be  revealed  to 
us.  He  might  as  well  not  come  at  all  if  he  comes 
only  in  disguise,  so  that  we  do  not  know  who  he 


GOD    CAN  REVEAL    HTMSELF.  35 

is.  You  have  read  many  descriptions  of  the 
"progress,"  so  called,  of  an  eastern  king.  He 
moves  through  his  dominions  at  the  head  of  a 
splendid  retinue.  When  he  comes  to  a  new  prov- 
ince the  people  swarm  forth  to  meet  him.  They 
straighten  the  crooked  roads,  they  level  moun- 
tains, and  fill  up  valleys,  and  everywhere  the  cry 
goes  up,  "Prepare  you  a  way  for  the  king,  who 
is  coming  to  show  himself  unto  his  humble  peo- 
ple ! "  Somewhat  in  this  way  Christ  rode  into 
Jerusalem,  and  that  triumphal  entry  was  not  an 
act  of  vanity  but  of  tender  and  lowly  love. 

Thus  it  is  that  God  must  ever  come,  not  dis- 
guised under  natural  law,  but  in  his  own  proper 
person,  or  how  can  he  be  revealed?  He  does  not 
wish  to  be  disguised ;  he  wants  us  to  know  that 
it  is  he  who  speaks  to  us,  that  it  is  in  truth  his 
own  almighty  arm  which  is  made  bare.  You  see, 
therefore,  that  we  speak  only  in  a  very  limited 
and  qualified  sense  when  we  say  that  God  is  re- 
vealed in  nature.  Nature  suggests  that  there  is  a 
God  ;  still  our  hearts  cry,  "  Show  us  the  Father." 
Nature  is  that  veil  on  the  image  of  Isis  which  no 
man  could  lift.  God  cannot  be  wholly  in  nature, 
and  when  he  comes  and  speaks  to  us,  when  he 
really  and  truly  reveals  himself,  the  transaction 
must  be  supernatural ;  it  must  be  miraculous  just 
to  the  extent  that  God  is  revealed. 

When  a  fellow-man  comes  among  us  we  expect 


36  ^^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

him  to  act  in  accordance  with  his  own  character. 
If  Mr.  Tennyson  should  come  among  us,  Ave 
should  expect  him  to  act  like  the  shy  and  solitude- 
loving  poet  that  he  is.  If  an  ambitious  aspirant 
to  fame  and  power  should  come,  we  should  expect 
him  to  bluster  about  and  make  the  most  of  his 
chances  for  showing  himself  off.  We  expect  to 
see  all  persons  acting  in  character,  —  the  benevo- 
lent man  benevolently,  the  selfish  man  selfishly, 
the  proud  man  proudly,  the  vain  man  vainly,  the 
modest  man  modestly,  and  so  on.  And  now  when 
God  comes  we  do  not  expect  him  to  act  like  some 
one  else,  but  like  himself,  a  wonder-working  God. 
If  he  did  only  as  others  do,  or  only  as  we  see 
nature  doing,  he  would  not  be  revealed.  We 
should  miss  that  which  the  very  idea  of  such  a 
revelation  involves.  If  we  take  up  a  treatise  on 
some  subject  in  nature,  the  facts  all  carefully 
gathered,  the  reasonings  logical,  written  with 
scientific  accuracy,  we  should  reject  it  at  once  if  it 
claimed  to  come  from  God.  There  is  nothing 
miraculous  in  it ;  it  only  explains  the  doings  of 
natural  forces,  and  therefore  it  cannot  be  a  revela- 
tion of  God.  God  is  not  in  it,  but  only  nature 
and  human  skill.  When  God  comes,  when  he 
makes  a  progress  through  his  dominions,  and 
shows  himself  to  men,  he  must  be  properly  at- 
tended, and  his  proper  attendants  are  miracles. 
They  are  his  own  acts,  which   neither    man   nor 


GOD    CAN  REVEAL   HIMSELF.  37 

nature  can  do,  but  only  he.  As  in  the  Apocalyp- 
tic scene  the  hosts  of  heaven  rode  on  white  horses 
after  Him  who  had  on  his  vesture  the  name  *'  Kinof 
of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords,"  so  when  God  comes 
to  men  we  look  to  see  miracles  followino;  in  his 
train.  We  throw  aside  the  books  which  have 
nothing  miraculous  in  them,  with  the  ready  re- 
mark, "These  can  be  no  revelation  of  God." 

But  when  we  take  up  a  book  whose  first  sen- 
tence is,  "In  the  beo^innino-  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,"  we  are  encouraged  to  read 
on.  It  is  just  what  we  expect  when  Ave  find 
him  speaking  to  his  first-created  child  in  the  cool 
of  the  day.  This  book  is  not  a  mockery  on  the 
face  of  it,  but  reads  like  a  true  revelation  of  God ; 
for  it  speaks  of  God  as  coming  to  men  in  dreams, 
as  talking  with  them,  as  calling  out  the  good  from 
among  the  evil  to  be  especially  his.  We  are  glad 
to  hear  it  tell  of  the  plagues  in  Egypt,  of  the 
divided  sea,  of  the  manna  and  quails,  and  the 
pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  of  the  sun  and  moon  that 
stood  still,  of  the  fire  that  came  down  on  Carmel, 
of  the  great  fish  by  which  the  Lord's  servant  was 
saved.  We  do  not  throw  aside  such  a  book  as 
this,  claiming  to  tell  us  what  God  has  done  among 
men,  but  are  fascinated,  and  read  on  and  on. 

It  is  above  man  ;  it  is  above  nature  ;  it  is  wholly 
divine  and  God-like,  — just  what  we  should  expect 
in  the  revelation  for  which  we  long,  when  we  read 


38  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

that  Jesus  was  born  of  a  virgin,  that  he  opened 
blind  eyes  and  deaf  ears  and  dumb  mouths,  that 
he  made  the  palsied  and  crippled  and  leprous  leap 
to  their  feet  and  walk,  that  he  stood  at  the  grave 
and  said  with  a  voice  which  the  dead  heard  and 
obeyed,  "Lazarus,  come  forth."  If  we  believed 
in  nothing  but  nature  we  might  reject  such  a  book, 
but  we  believe  in  God,  and  these  are  just  such 
mighty  deeds  as  we  expect  him  to  perform.  We 
put  ourselves  beside  St.  Paul  speaking  to  Agrippa. 
When  St.  Paul  spoke  of  our  Lord's  resurrection, 
Agrippa,  having  only  natural  forces  in  mind, 
doubted.  "Oh,  yes,"  reasons  Paul,  "you  may 
doubt  if  you  know  only  nature,  but  I  am  speaking 
of  God,  and  why  should  you  think  it  a  thing  im- 
possible that  God,  with  whom  all  things  are 
possible,  should  raise  the  dead?"  We  are  glad 
of  all  the  history,  the  doctrine,  the  ethical  instruc- 
tion which  the  book  contains  ;  but  we  are  especi- 
ally glad  of  the  miracles  in  it,  since  these  are  what 
we  first  seek  in  any  revelation  of  God.  These, 
like  the  light  of  the  sun,  tell  us  that  there  is  a  sun  ; 
these,  like  the  royal  retinue,  tell  us  that  the  per- 
sonage who  is  moving  through  is  indeed  a  Prince. 
Take  these  away  and  our  interest  in  the  volume 
would  be  gone.  It  could  not  be  the  revelation 
which  our  God  desires  to  make,  and  which  we 
need  to  receive.  We  should  turn  aAvay  from  it  as 
from  a  firmament  which  had  lost  its  stars. 


GOD    CAN   REVEAL    HIMSELF.  39 

And  God  can  surround  himself  with  these 
mighty  works  when  he  comes  among  men.  Look 
at  this  statement  a  moment.  We  are  God's  chil- 
dren. And  do  you  think  he  would  make  a  world 
whose  laws  and  natural  forces  should  rise  up  as  a 
separating  wall  between  us  and  him  ?  Most  surely 
he  would  not.  Our  idea  of  God  obliges  us  to  feel 
that  he  saw  the  end  from  the  beginning.  He  knew 
whether  or  not  the  time  would  ever  come  when  he 
could  not  control  nature,  when  he  could  not  over- 
rule or  use  her  forces  in  the  interest  of  his  chil- 
dren, liefore  he  set  up  her  framework.  Certainly 
he  would  not  have  built  that  framework  if  it  were 
ever  to  shut  him  away  from  those  for  whose  sake 
he  made  it,  if  it  were  ever  to  keep  him  from 
coming  to  them  and  saving  them  out  of  any  error 
or  sin  into  which  they  might  fall.  It  is  written  on 
the  tablet  of  our  hearts  that  man  is  God's  crown- 
ing work,  — that  he  stands  at  the  head  of  creation. 
We  see  man  having  dominion  over  God's  other 
works.  We  feel  that  all  nature  is  a  mistake  if  her 
forces  cannot  be  wielded  for  the  advantage  of  men. 
There  would  not  be  a  material  creation  with  its 
laws  and  forces  if  God  cannot  come  through  it, 
stop  its  movements,  modify  and  control  its  action, 
as  may  be  necessary  for  the  good  of  his  own  im- 
mortal children.  God  not  only  desires  to  reveal 
himself  to  us,  but  he  can  do  so,  although  a  stu- 
pendous miracle  is  involved  in  the  very  idea  of 


40  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

such  a  revelation.  It  is  infinitely  easy  for  him  to 
do  what  so  amazes  us,  as  he  must  have  seen  when 
he  made  the  Avorld. 

And  how  glorious  the  character  of  God  seems  to 
us  while  he  is  thus  caring  for  the  least  and  most 
distant  of  the  creatures  made  in  his  image  !  I 
have  heard  men  say  that  it  does  not  comport  with 
the  dignity  of  the  infinite  God  to  be  so  concerned 
for  the  inhabitants  of  this  little  world.  Ah,  dear 
friend,  they  do  not  know  what  that  word  "in- 
finite "  means,  —  what  possibilities  are  in  it,  what 
responsibilities  it  involves  !  Why  do  we  say  that 
a  great  man  lowers  himself  by  familiarity  Avith  the 
mean  and  vile?  Only  because  he  is  not  infinitely 
great.  He  has  his  limitations.  He  cannot  do  all 
thinofs.  If  he  cares  so  much  for  what  is  beneath 
his  station  he  may  neglect  more  important  things. 
He  is  capable  of  stain,  and  may  not  keep  himself 
unspotted  from  the  world  if  he  mixes  too  freely 
with  it.  But  let  him  l)e  infinite,  let  him  have  all 
power,  let  him  be  incapable  of  wrong  or  stain,  and 
we  should  reason  just  the  other  way.  We  say 
that  he  ought  to  stoop  in  love  to  every  soul  of 
man,  since  he  can  do  it  and  still  be  true  to  him- 
self and  every  other  interest.  The  sun  floods  with 
light  every  crevice  of  the  world  which  is  open  to 
him  ;  yet  he  is  not  thereby  impoverished.  The 
tides  of  the  ocean  fill  and  overflow  the  smallest 
creeks  and  inlets  all  around  its  vast  shores,  unto 


GOB    CAN  REVEAL    HIMSELF.  41 

the  end  of  the  world ;  and  this  is  just  what  the 
ocean  should  do,  since  its  depths  are  in  no  danger 
of  beino-  drained.  In  like  manner  God  does  not 
need  to  husband  his  resources.  They  can  never 
give  out. 

If  the  universe  should  fall  Ijack  into  chaos,  he 
could  again  call  it  forth ;  could  bring  all  its  parts 
together,  part  to  part,  in  beauteous  and  harmoni- 
ous array,  and  command  them  to  resume  their 
orderly  march.  A  scholar  once  said,  rather  vainly 
perhaps,  that  when  he  wanted  a  new  book  he  made 
it.  But  God  can  truly  say  that  he  makes  a  new 
world  as  often  as  he  needs  it  for  any  purpose  of 
his.  And  it  becomes  him  not  only  to  make  worlds 
but  destroy  them,  to  rearrange  them,  to  thrust  his 
mighty  arm  through  their  intricate  maze  of  natural 
law,  for  the  sake  of  his  children  whom  he  crowned 
with  glory  and  honor,  and  set  over  all  the  works 
of  his  hand.  That  he  should  neglect  these  would 
be  the  strano-e  and  amazing  thing.  But  when  w^e 
see  him  caring  for  them,  rolling  up  the  curtain  of 
nature's  laws,  and  stepping  forth  in  love  to  lay 
hold  of  his  least  and  lowest  child,  then  we  feel 
that  he  is  true  to  our  own  idea  of  the  infinite 
Father.  In  that  revelation,  that  miracle,  we  see 
nature  not  degraded  but  ennobled ;  put  to  her 
highest  and  most  sacred  uses ;  her  ten  thousand 
voices  never  praise  God  more  than  when  she  is 
wielded,  or  overruled,  or  set  aside,  that  God  may 


42  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

fulfil   his    desire   of    reaching   and   rescuing   lost 
men. 

The  form  of  the  miracle  in  which  God  must  ever 
be  garmented  when  he  comes  to  men  may  and 
should  change  at  every  stage  of  human  develop- 
ment, but  the  miracle  in  its  essence  can  never  be 
absent.  Some  persons  seem  to  think  that  all 
miracles  are  external,  in  the  world  of  matter, 
addressed  to  the  bodily  senses.  And  they  ask, 
as  though  they  had  raised  a  formidable  objection, 
"  why  have  miracles  ceased  ?  "  In  the  broad  sense 
of  the  word,  my  dear  friends,  miracles  have  not 
ceased.  God  is  still  revealing  himself  to  men, 
and  speaking  to  them  as  unmistakably  as  he  ever 
spoke.  Ah,  if  we  would  but  listen,  if  we  had  ears 
to  hear,  there  would  be  no  doubt  in  our  minds 
that  God  still  walks  in  the  midst  of  his  churches. 
Dull  as  we  are,  he  makes  us  pass  through  seasons 
of  special  awakening,  of  the  turning  of  wicked 
men  to  him  in  such  wondrous  ways  that  we  are 
forced  to  exclaim,  "  This  is  not  man's  doing ;  lo  ! 
God  is  here  !  "  When  man  fell  from  God  he  went 
as  far  down  as  it  was  possible  for  him  to  go.  The 
descent  was  not  gradual,  but  sudden  and  to  the 
lowest  extreme.  Man  fell  as  the  Son  of  the 
Morning  before  him  had  fallen.  The  spirit  in  him 
came  into  subjection  to  the  flesh,  and  in  his  fleshly 
nature  man  was  but  a  savage  even  in  the  garden 
of  Eden.     He  was  an  amiable  savage  at  first,  Tmt 


GOB    CAN  REVEAL    HIMSELF.  43 

became  fierce  and  murderous  as  soon  as  the  spirit 
in  him  fell. 

Now  God,  in  revealing  himself  to  his  fallen 
child,  must  take  into  account  this  savage  nature 
which  controlled  him.  That  nature  could  be  pene- 
trated, and  the  enslaved  spirit  reached,  only  by 
revelations  which  should  startle,  which  should 
terrify,  which  should  compel  attention,  and  over- 
awe and  subdue.  It  was  necessary  that  God 
should  make  much  use  of  the  element  of  fear  in 
his  first  comings  to  men,  in  order  that  they  might 
be  induced  to  sfive  him  heed.  But  as  man  a^rew 
less  barbarous,  approached  nearer  to  civilization, 
became  developed  in  mind  and  heart,  God  showed 
himself  less  in  outward  and  startling  ways.  Mount 
Sinai  was  changed  to  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes  as 
soon  as  the  world  was  ready.  When  the  blessed 
Son  of  God  was  needed  rather  than  the  terrible 
Elijah,  that  Son  of  God  came,  meek  and  lowly, 
born  of  a  virgin.  The  miraculous  element  was  still 
there  in  all  its  wonderfulness,  — yet  how  changed 
in  its  form  !  In  like  manner  while  God  was  pro- 
viding for  a  record  of  so  many  of  his  revelations 
as  the  world  might  afterwards  need,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  wonders  in  the  world  of  matter,  signs  of 
his  presence  and  approval,  should  attend  his  ser- 
vants. But  now,  those  appointed  servants  having 
written  out  that  record,  the  world  havino;  at  length 
received  a  volume  giving  it  such  guidance  as  it 


44  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

needs  in  spiritual  things,  the  occasion  for  the 
outward  manifestations  is  gone,  and  they  are  with- 
drawn. God  still  reveals  himself,  he  speaks  to 
men  ;  the  essential  element  in  the  first  miracles  is 
yet  with  us.  But  men  are  not  what  they  once 
were.  Prol>ably  the  worst  savage  of  to-day  is  less 
wild  than  the  primitive  man.  Though  the  spirits 
of  men  are  still  in  bondage  to  the  flesh,  their 
hearts  and  minds  have  been  growing  toward  re- 
finement, in  some  races  less  and  in  others  more, 
through  thousands  of  years.  Those  which  are 
now*  lowest  down  have  for  the  most  part  each  had 
their  turn  of  standing  highest.  They  have  fallen 
a  second  time  by  despising  the  divine  mercy  which 
came  to  them  to  save.  If  God  has  ceased  to  speak 
to  any,  it  is  because  it  is  impossible  to  renew 
them  again  unto  repentance.  Still,  so  for  as  we 
are  concerned,  it  is  true  that  the  revelation  which 
we  need  is  not  outward  so  much  as  inward,  —  not 
that  which  startles  and  terrifies,  but  that  which 
convinces  and  persuades. 

God  desires  to  speak  to  us  ;  he  can  speak  to  us, 
however  miraculous  the  act  may  be  ;  he  does  speak 
to  us.  Not  only  is  he  revealed  in  great  revivals 
of  religion,  in  the  conversion  of  relations  to  the 
gospel  of  his  Son,  in  the  bowing  of  the  hardened 
and  reckless  worldling  in  penitence  and  foitli ;  but 
to  you  and  to  me,  in  our  conscience,  in  the  silence 
and  secrecy  of  our  own  thought,  he  is  daily  re- 


GOB    CAN  BEVEAL    HIMSELF.  45 

vealed,  speaking  courage  to  us  if  we  faint  in  his 
service,  saying  unto  us,  if  we  yet  stray  in  the 
paths  of  sin,  "  Oh,  my  child,  why  not  turn  unto  me  ? 
Will  you  not  from  this  time  say  unto  me,  My 
Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  " 

"  The  Lord,  how  fearful  is  his  name! 
How  wide  is  his  command ! 
Natm-e,  with  all  her  moving  frame, 
Kests  on  his  mighty  hand. 

"  Immortal  glory  forms  his  throne. 
And  light  his  awful  robe  ; 
While  with  a  smile,  or  with  a  frown, 
He  manages  the  globe. 

"  A  word  of  his  almighty  breath 
Can  swell  or  sink  the  seas; 
Build  the  vast  empires  of  the  earth, 
Or  break  them  as  he  please. 

"  On  angels,  with  unveiled  face. 
His  glory  beams  above ; 
On  men  he  looks  with  softest  grace, 
And  takes  his  title,  Love." 


CHAPTER   IV. 

INSPIRATION. 

If  our  Bible  is  a  trustworthy  record  of  words 
and  deeds  in  which  God  has  revealed  himself  to 
men,  then  must  it  needs  be  specially  inspired.  It 
must  be  God's  book,  not  man's.  God  must  be 
the  author  of  it,  however  he  made  use  of  men  in 
writing  it.  Under  his  immediate  superintendence 
and  guidance  it  must  have  been  written,  or  we 
cannot  accept  it  as  an  adequate  account  of  what 
he  has  done  and  said. 

We  saw  in  the  chapter  before  this  that  God's 
revelation  of  himself  must,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  be  wholly  miraculous.  He  is  outside  of 
nature,  and  comes  down  into  her  realm  by  a  sov- 
ereio-n  act  in  dealins:  with  us.  We  cannot  rise 
into  sympathy  with  him,  so  as  accurately  to  de- 
scribe what  he  does  for  us,  unless  he  lifts  us  up 
into  such  sympathy.  The  revelation  which  is 
miraculously  made  must  be  miraculously  written 
down.  This  is  our  very  short  and  all-sufficient 
reply  to  those  who  ask  us  why  we  believe  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible.  It  must  be  inspired  or 
it  cannot  be  what  Ave  are  seeking.  It  is  no  rev- 
elation of  God  if  it  is  not  God's  book.  To  say 
46 


INSPTRAriON.  47 

that  it  is  such  a  revelation,  and  that  it  is  a  merely 
human  book,  is  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

God  desired  to  reveal  himself  to  us  because  we 
had  left  him,  and  were  unable  of  ourselves  to  find 
the  way  of  truth  and  life.  This  I  have  already 
shown  in  the  last  chapter  but  one.  If,  now,  we 
say  that  we  can  find  our  way  back  to  God ;  that 
we  need  not  to  be  guided  and  led  ;  that,  uninspired 
and  unhelped,  we  can  write  down  God's  thoughts 
concerning  us,  then  all  occasion  for  the  revelation 
is  taken  away.  This  makes  our  Bible  a  merely 
human  book,  not  a  divine  revelation  ;  a  collection 
of  writings  which  has  no  special  authority,  which 
we  may  criticise  just  as  we  do  other  books,  reject- 
ing what  is  above  our  reason,  throwing  out  of  it 
all  that  is  marvellous  or  strange.  To  be  worth 
anything  to  us  it  must  not  only  be  above  nature 
and  reason,  but  it  must  bring  with  it  the  evidence 
that  it  is  the  word  of  God.  We  often  say  of  the 
Bible  that  it  is  God's  word  ;  and  we  must  feel  that 
we  are  right  in  saying  this,  or  the  Bible  is  of 
small  account  to  us. 

Christ  is  in  the  highest  sense  the  word  of  God,  — 
the  word  made  flesh,  as  he  is  the  highest  divine 
revelation  to  men.  But  it  is  the  office  of  all 
words  to  reveal  thoughts,  and  therefore  any  book 
which  reveals  God's  thoughts  to  us  may  be  called 
the  word  of  God.  He  may  have  employed  human 
agents  to  write  it ;  but  he  so  lifted  them  into  sym- 


48  -^^Or  OF  MAN.    BUT  OF  GOD. 

pathy  with  him,  so  made  them  see  all  things  from 
his  point  of  view,  so  guided  and  controlled  them 
that  the  words  which  they  wrote  down  were  not 
their  own,  but  truly  and  properly  his. 

Such  is  my  meaning  when  I  say  that  the  record 
of  God's  revelation  to  us  must  needs  be  specially 
inspired,  and  is  nothing  to  us  so  far  as  it  is  not. 
I  do  not  use  the  word  "inspired"  as  it  is  often 
used.  There  is  an  inspiration  which  consists 
wholly  in  natural  excitement ;  it  is  not  at  all  su- 
pernatural, miraculous,  divine.  It  is  perfectly 
proper  for  us  to  say,  using  the  word  in  this  sense, 
that  any  man  is  inspired  who  is  so  aroused  and 
raised  up  in  mind  as  to  give  him  a  magnetic 
power  over  us.  We  perform  acts  of  inspiration, 
or  speak  words  which  charm  and  subdue  men, 
when  thus  lifted  up  in  soul.  But  this  is  only  the 
inspiration  of  genius ;  it  is  wholly  natural ;  it 
does  not  bring  with  it  that  divine  stamp  which 
any  revelation  of  God  must  needs  have.  It  was 
in  this  merely  human,  unauthoritative  way  that 
Wordsworth  was  inspired  when  he  wrote  his  ode 
on  immortality ;  that  Shakespeare  was  inspired 
when  he  wrote  Hamlet  and  Othello  and  Lear. 
Some  of  the  greatest  poets  have  represented 
themselves  as  under  the  guidance  of  a  superhuman 
power  in  what  they  wrote.  They  took  up  their 
pen,  and  then  invoked  their  muse  to  tell  them 
what  they  should  write.     Thus  Homer  says,  at  the 


INSPIRATION.  49 

beginning  of  the  Iliad,  "Sing,  oh  muse,  the  wrath 
of  Achilles,  which  brought  woe  to  the  Greeks 
and  sent  unnumbered  souls  to  Hades."  And 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Odyssey  he  says,  "Tell 
me,  oh  muse,  of  the  crafty  man  who  sailed  over 
the  sea  and  saw  many  cities  and  lands."  Virgil, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  iEneid,  says,  ''Tell  me, 
oh  muse,  of  the  man  whom  angry  Juno  drove 
from  Troy  to  the  Lavinian  shores."  Even  Milton, 
imitating  this  classic  usage,  says,  at  the  beginning 
of  his  "Paradise  Lost,"  — 

"Of  man's  first  disobedience  and  the  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree,  whose  mortal  taste 
Brought  death  into  the  world  and  all  our  woe, 
With  loss  of  Eden,  till  one  greater  Man 
Restore  us,  and  regain  the  blissful  seat, 
Sing,  heavenly  muse." 

Such  was  the  ancient  custom.  Possibly  it  came 
down  into  history  from  the  times  when  God  did 
indeed  speak  to  his  prophets,  and  tell  them  what 
to  say  from  him  to  men.  But  the  device  was 
dropped  after  a  time,  and  is  now  almost  never 
seriously  used.  The  muse  was  a  creation  of  the 
poet's  fancy  ;  he  did  not  claim  to  be  supernaturally 
inspired.  If  asked  if  he  had  come  to  men  with  a 
special  message  from  God,  he  no  doubt  would 
have  said  no. 

Men  of  this  class,  however  much  genius  they 
may  have,  and  though  they  say  and  do  wonderful 


50  ^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

things,  are  not  on  that  account  Gotl's  messengers, 
of  whom  he  has  taken  hold  and  sent  them  to 
speak  and  to  write  his  w^ords.  Much  humbler 
men  than  they,  the  poor  and  unlettered,  may  be 
God's  inspired  agents ;  for  he  loves  to  hide  from 
the  wise  and  prudent  what  he  reveals  to  babes. 
He  told  the  child  Samuel  what  he  did  not  tell  to 
Eli.  He  sho^ved  to  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem 
what  he  did  not  show  to  Herod's  wise  men.  He 
chooses  the  weak  things  rather  than  the  mighty, 
the  things  which  are  not  rather  than  the  things 
which  are,  that  no  flesh  may  glory  in  his  pres- 
ence. There  have  been  better  men  than  Balaam, 
yet  God  laid  hold  of  him  and  made  him  speak 
God's  thoughts  concerning  Israel.  The  more  you 
parade  the  faults  of  those  who  speak  and  write 
God's  words  for  him  the  more  do  you  exalt  his 
sovereignty,  the  more  manifestly  do  you  make 
their  words  his  words,  what  they  say  and  do  a 
revelation  of  his  will,  who  sends  by  Avhom  he  will 
send.  When  a  book  claims  to  be  from  God,  and 
bears  his  marks  upon  it,  its  claim  is  not  weakened 
but  strengthened  if  it  has  been  written  by  imper- 
fect men.  For  the  best  men  cannot  rise  to  that 
revelation ;  and  God,  by  using  the  lowest,  proves 
that  he  can  save  us  all.  He  by  inspiring  them 
shows  himself  to  be  the  very  God  whom  we  need. 
What  he  does  in  them  proves  that  he  can  save  to 
the  uttermost.     Tims  St.   Paul  felt  while  he  re- 


INSPIBATION.  51 

called  the  wickedness  of  his  early  life,  saying : 
"  I  obtained  mercy,  that  in  me  first  Jesus  Christ 
might  shew  forth  all  long-sufiering,  for  a  pattern 
to  them  which  should  hereafter  believe  on  him." 
If  God  could  save  such  as  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and 
inspire  him  to  be  a  revealer  of  God  to  others, 
then  is  there  hope  for  us  all.  And  our  idea  of 
God  as  the  infinite  Father  is  such  that  this  large 
hope  is  what  we  expect  a  revelation  from  him 
especially  to  brmg.  The  lowly  and  mean  lot  on 
earth  of  the  messengers,  and  their  sins  out  of 
which  God  saves  them,  are  therefore  a  strong  wit- 
ness that  any  book  which  they  claim  to  bring  from 
God  is  indeed  God's  message  to  us.  Any  man 
who  speaks  to  us  of  God  must  be  guided  of  God ; 
and  the  poorer  the  messenger  the  richer  the  hope 
for  us. 

It  does  not  become  us  to  say  that  all  the  revela- 
tions of  himself  which  God  has  made  to  any  men 
are  recorded  in  the  book  which  we  fondly  call  our 
Bible.  It  does  not  hinder  this  Bible  from  beinsf  an 
adequate  revelation  for  all  men  to  admit  that  other 
revelations  have  been  made.  I  do  not  say  that 
there  are  others,  but  would  give  any  other  books 
claiming  to  be  revelations  a  chance  to  prove  their 
claim.  I  think  one  thing  must  always  be  true  of 
any  revelation :  it  must  not  be  behind  the  best 
spirit  of  the  times  in  which  it  is  made,  and  it  must 
point  the  men  of  those  times  forward  to  something 


52  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF   GOD. 

better,  not  backward  to  something  worse.  This 
criterion  is  enough  to  throw  out  any  pretended 
book  of  Mormon,  the  Koran,  the  sayings  and 
prophesyings  of  a  large  class  who  are  always 
bringing  in  some  new  system  of  religious  taith. 
The  Bible  which  we  have  can  meet  this  test.  No 
part  of  it  was,  so  far  as  it  claimed  to  be  from  God, 
behind  the  best  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  it  came, 
while  it  pointed  forward  to  something  better. 
And  to-day  the  Bible,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  so  far 
ahead  of  the  best  human  thought,  in  what  it  says 
on  religious  and  spiritual  themes,  that  we  some- 
times wonder  whether  the  world  can  ever  come 
up  to  its  standards  and  ideals. 

I  think  we  all  must  say,  from  this  point  of  view, 
that  the  Bible  contains  revelation  enough  for  the 
whole  world,  even  if  it  does  not  contain  all  that 
God  has  made.  It  does  not,  according  to  what 
we  read  in  its  own  pages.  The  words  and  deeds 
of  our  blessed  Lord  were  not  all  recorded.  St. 
John  supposes  that  if  they  had  been  the  world 
could  not  have  contained  the  books.  Very  many 
of  his  precious  sayings  have  not  been  reported  to 
us.  One  or  two,  omitted  by  the  evangelists,  we 
have  in  the  letters  of  St.  Paul.  St.  Paul  himself 
speaks  of  a  letter  of  his  which  we  do  not  find  in 
our  Bible.  God  may  have  said  and  done  a  great 
many  things  which  were  true  revelations  of  him, 
yet  of  which  we  have  no  account.     But  we  have 


INSPIRATION.  53 

enough.  Any  man  who  knows  the  Bible  knows 
that  he  can  find  all  the  instruction,  comfort,  and 
guidance  that  he  needs  in  the  Bible, — just  such 
help  as  he  expects  from  God,  and  such  as  he  could 
not  trust  any  one  else  to  bring.  I  do  not  under- 
take to  say  that  God  never  spoke  to  any  men  but 
those  whose  names  are  recorded  in  our  Bible.  It 
relieves  my  mind  to  feel  that  he  spoke  to  the  most 
ancient  of  the  Egyptians,  to  the  Persians,  the 
Chaldeans,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Greeks,  the  Latins, 
and  not  exclusively  to  the  Hebrews.  But  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  granting  that  we  do  see  the  true 
God  in  those  old  religions,  that  none  of  them  has 
ever  displaced  the  religion  of  Christ ;  that  they 
each  and  all,  when  brought  face  to  face  with  him, 
confess  that  he  is  the  express  image  of  the  God 
whom  they  faintly  reflect ;  that  they  are  not  so 
much  destroyed  as  fulfilled  by  losing  their  separate 
forms  and  blendins:  too^ether  in  one  blessed  wor- 
ship  and  fellowship  in  him.  Some  of  the  sacred 
books  of  those  religions  claim  to  be  from  God, 
and  that  claim  entitles  them  to  our  respect ;  that 
claim  leads  us  to  examine  them.  And  if  we  decline 
to  receive  them  as  true  revelations  of  God  it  is 
because  we  miss  in  them  certain  essential  things 
which  such  a  revelation,  intended  for  the  salvation 
of  men,  must  contain. 

But  if  any  book  not  claiming  to  be  inspired,  not 
claiming  to  be  written  under  the  special  guidance 


54  ^"0T  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

and  control  of  God,  comes  to  us  and  says  that  it 
is  a  revelation  of  God's  mind  and  will  towards 
us,  we  ought  to  cast  it  aside  at  once.  From  the 
nature  of  the  case  it  cannot  be  what  it  pretends 
to  be ;  for  only  that  which  comes  from  God  can 
reveal  God.  Nature  came  from  God,  and  she 
reveals  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God ;  the  hu- 
man spirit  comes  from  God,  and  that  reveals  his 
justice  and  truth.  And  so  any  book  must  come 
from  him,  must  be  written  by  men  whom  he  has  in- 
spired to  write  it,  which  reveals  to  us  his  pity,  his 
mercy,  his  redeeming  love.  The  world  is  full  of 
books  claiming  to  be  only  human,  yet  affirming 
that  they  tell  us  all  of  God  which  can  ever  be 
known.  But  all  of  these  books  together  can  never 
make  a  Bible  for  us ;  they  are  not  a  revelation, 
for  they  are  not  supernatural,  not  divine.  The 
"free  religionist"  comes  and  tells  us  his  dream, 
the  materialist  comes  and  tells  us  his,  the  idealist 
and  pantheist  come  and  tell  us  theirs.  And  they 
say  to  us,  "Here  is  the  explanation  of  the  riddle  of 
life  and  the  world."  We  look  at  their  portly 
volumes,  and  we  ask  them,  "Did  God  give  you 
these  words  to  speak?"  "Oh,  no!"  say  they, 
"we  thought  them  out  ourselves."  "Alas,  then," 
is  our  answer,  "they  cannot  be  to  us  the  light 
which  we  are  seeking.  They  are  simply  human ; 
they  do  not  reveal  God.  You  who  write  them 
are  just  as  much  in  the  dark  about  God  as  we. 


INSPIRATION.  55 

We  have  all  lost  our  way  together ;  we  alike  need 
that  God  himself  should  speak  to  us  and  tell  us 
what  is  truth. 

We  resemble  travellers  on  some  vast  plateau 
who  have  all  lost  their  way,  who  cannot  tell  which 
way  is  east,  and  who  are  as  likely  to  go  straight 
away  from  as  toward  the  point  they  wish  to  reach 
every  step  they  take.  We  are  not  only  all  thus 
lost,  but  a  mist  has  settled  down  upon  us  which 
hides  the  sky.  You  wise  theorists,  looking  on  us, 
say,  "Those  people  yonder  are  sadly  befogged ;  " 
but  you  are  just  as  much  in  the  fog  as  we.  None 
of  us  can  guide  the  others.  What  we  need  is  one 
whom  God  has  guided  into  the  truth.  Only  some 
book  which  he  has  caused  to  be  written  can  be  our 
compass.  Nothing  less  than  this  can  be  to  us  the 
needle  ever  pointing  to  the  north,  which  we  alike 
need.  Nothing  less  than  a  book  for  whose  accu- 
racy God  vouches  can  tell  us  which  way  is  toward 
the  sunrising,  where  are  the  fixed  stars  by  which 
the  lost  soul  may  find  its  way,  in  what  paths  we 
may  return  to  our  homes  rather  than  get  farther 
from  them. 

No  matter,  my  dear  friend,  how  brilliantly  men 
may  talk  to  us,  or  how  wisely,  learnedly,  and  pro- 
foundly. If  they  do  not  pretend  to  give  us  any- 
thing supernatural,  anything  divine ;  if  they  only 
speak  in  their  own  name,  declaring  that  they  are 
not  inspired  any  difierently  from  all  men,  except 


56  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT   OF  GOD. 

perhaps  a  little  more,  then  we  cut  them  short  in 
the  midst  of  their  vain  boasting.  They  cannot 
reveal  God  to  us,  for  he  has  not  sent  them.  They 
still  leave  us  in  the  dark.  Their  knowledge  is  all 
human  and  natural.  They  have  not  seen  and 
known  God  any  more  than  we. 

But  now,  in  the  midst  of  these  confused  voices 
of  men, — of  men  who  are  in  their  own  wisdom 
trying  to  make  us  understand  God,  —  there  comes 
to  us  a  book  whose  writers  take  no  credit  to  them- 
selves. They  declare  that  the  words  which  they 
speak  are  not  their  own,  but  have  been  given  to 
them  from  God.  We  open  this  volume,  so  differ- 
ent from  all  the  others  in  what  it  claims  to  be,  and 
begin  to  read.  The  writers  are  many  of  them 
humble  men,  all  of  them  imperfect.  They  insist 
that  they  simply  record,  under  a  divine  impulse 
and  guidance,  what  they  have  witnessed  God  say- 
inof,  or  doinof,  or  bring-ino-  to  their  knowleda^e. 
"The  Lord  God  called  unto  Adam,  and  said  unto 
him.  Where  art  thou?  "  we  read  almost  in  the  be- 
ginning ;  and  then  God  declares  to  Adam  what 
are  to  be  the  consequences  of  sin.  We  turn  over 
a  leaf,  and  again  we  read,  "  The  Lord  said  unto 
Noah,  come  thou  and  all  thy  house  into  the  ark ; 
for  thee  have  I  seen  righteous  before  me  in  all  this 
generation."  Looking  a  little  farther  on,  we  i3nd 
these  words :  ''  Now  the  Lord  had  said  unto 
Abram,  get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy 


INSPIBATION.  57 

kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  into  a  land 
that  I  will  show  thee."  Many  passages  like  these, 
showing  us  that  God  himself  is  claimed  as  speak- 
ing to  men  in  this  unique  book,  we  pass  over  as 
we  glance  hastily  along.  When  the  Lord  was 
about  to  destroy  the  cities  of  the  plain,  he  said, 
"  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham  that  thing  which  I 
do?  "  and  he  came  to  his  chosen  servant,  and  told 
him  all.  "  God  said  unto  Isaac,"  "  God  said  unto 
Jacob,"  we  read  again  and  again.  The  Lord 
appeared  unto  Moses  in  the  burning  bush,  and 
said,  "  I  am  come  down  to  deliver  my  people  out 
of  the  hand  of  the  Egyptians.  .  .  .  Come  now, 
therefore,  and  I  will  send  thee  unto  Pharaoh,  that 
thou  may  est  bring  forth  my  people.  .  .  .  And 
thou  shalt  say  mito  the  children  of  Israel  I  AM 
hath  sent  me  unto  you." 

All  along,  dear  friend,  we  find  the  signs 
that  God  is  revealing  himself  in  this  book,  for 
everything  takes  place  under  his  guidance  and  by 
his  command.  Passing  on  a  little  we  come  to 
this  :  "  And  God  spake  all  these  words  saying " 
—  saying  what,  dear  friend?  Saying  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, which  are  at  the  bottom  of  all  true 
religion,  — a  perfect  standard  of  life  and  worship, 
which  Israel  failed  to  come  up  to,  and  which  even 
the  Christian  church  has  not  yet  reached.  The 
Tabernacle  was  lifted  up,  and  all  its  rites  ordered, 
as  the   temple   was   afterwards   built,  under   the 


58  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

direction  of  God.  God,  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
tire,  showed  the  people  where  to  pitch  their  camp 
and  how  to  continue  their  march.  After  the  death 
of  Moses  the  Lord  spake  unto  Joshua  saying, 
"  Arise,  go  over  this  Jordan,  thou  and  all  this 
people."  The  miraculous,  God-revealing  element 
was  conspicuous  throughout  his  career.  So,  too, 
the  Judges  do  not  act  in  their  own  name,  but 
claim  to  be  God's  instruments.  To  Eli,  and  to 
all  Israel,  this  book  says  it  was  not  Samuel  who 
spoke,  but  God  spoke  through  him.  Thus  was  it 
with  all  the  prophets, — Nathan,  Elijah,  Elisha, 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  to  the  time  of  the  carrying  away. 
"Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  is  the  announcement  with 
which  they  begin  their  messages.  They  declare 
that  God  is  moving  liefore  us  in  their  words,  that 
they  are  nothing  in  themselves,  but  are  inspired 
and  controlled  by  him.  This  truth  is  especially 
taught  to  Ezekiel,  who  spoke  during  the  captivity. 
God  reveals  himself  gloriously  to  the  prophet, 
who  is  afraid  to  go  to  his  fellow-captives,  and  then 
says,  "  I  send  thee  to  the  children  of  Israel.  .  .  . 
And  thou  shalt  speak  my  words  unto  them.  .  .  . 
Open  thy  mouth  and  eat  that  I  give  thee.  And 
when  I  looked,  behold,  an  hand  was  sent  unto  me, 
and,  lo  !  a  roll  of  a  book  was  therein." 

We  read  on  and  on,  fascinated  by  this  wondrous 
book,  which,  unlike  any  other,  declares  itself  to  be 
the  words  of  God ;    and  at  length  we  come  to  one 


INSPIRATION.  59 

fairer  than  the  children  of  men,  through  whom 
God,  who  spake  to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets, 
now  speaks,  and  whom  he  calls  his  Son.  His 
person,  his  whole  history,  and  his  teachings  reveal 
God  to  men.  His  birth  was  miraculous,  his  daily 
path  in  life  blossomed  with  miracles  of  love  and 
pity,  he  rose  from  the  dead  and  went  into  heaven 
in  a  wholly  miraculous  manner.  This  wondrous 
person  declares  that  he  came  from  God,  that  he  is 
God's  Son,  and  speaks  the  words  of  God.  He 
says  that  he  is  wholly  under  a  divine  control ;  that 
he  is  inspired  and  led  by  the  eternal  Sprit ;  that  he 
speaks  the  things  which  he  has  seen  the  Father  do  ; 
that  he  comes  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  him. 
He  goes  even  farther  than  this,  —  insisting  that  he 
is  very  God  of  very  God,  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh,  —  saying  that  whoso  hath  seen  him  hath  seen 
the  Father. 

Now,  if  God  is  ever  to  be  revealed  to  us,  saving 
us  from  sin  and  leading  us  into  the  truth,  here 
certainly  is  the  brightest  promise  we  have  yet 
found  of  his  coming.  This  Jesus  calls  himself  the 
Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world ;  he  declares  that 
his  words  are  spirit  and  life.  He  is  more  than  in- 
spired of  God ;  he  is  God,  and  speaks  in  his  OAvn 
name  as  well  as  the  Father's.  And  he  did  not 
commit  his  life  and  teachings  to  the  idle  winds. 
He  called  about  him  twelve  men,  instructed  them, 
guided  their  wavering  steps,  told  them  the  Spirit 


60  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

of  God  would  bring  to  their  remembrance  every- 
thing he  had  said  unto  them,  sent  them  forth  in 
his  name,  saying,  "  Go  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you," 
Thus  are  all  the  apostles,  Avho  speak  to  us  in  the 
Acts  and  Epistles,  placed  under  the  divine  leader- 
ship and  control,  so  thtit  they  too  reveal  God  unto 
us  in  what  they  say  and  do. 

And  the  last  writing  in  the  wondrous  book  has 
the  name  Revelation  given  to  it,  thus  impressing 
our  minds,  just  as  we  are  about  to  lay  down  the 
volume,  with  the  thought  that  it  all  comes  from 
God.  "Revelation,  Revelation!"  we  exclaim; 
"this  is  what  not  only  the  last  writing  but  all  the 
writino-s  in  the  collection  claim  to  be."  The  whole 
is  from  God  just  as  truly  as  any  of  it  is  from  him  ; 
and  the  woes  threatened  aa^ainst  him  who  shall 
take  anything  from  that  last  writing  or  add  any- 
thing to  it  may,  with  equal  justice,  be  threatened 
for  the  alteration  of  any  other  part  of  the  book. 

Such  is  the  Bible  in  its  claims  and  professions, 
as  we  see  upon  glancing  through  it.  And  what 
an  interest  the  fact  that  it  claims  to  be  above 
everything  else  a  revelation  of  God  gives  to  it? 
See  the  ancient  volume  Ij^ing  quietly  by  itself, 
waiting  for  you  in  your  pews,  in  your  counting- 
rooms  and  homes  ;  translated  into  more  than  two- 


INSPIBATION.  61 

hundred  languages  and  dialects,  sailing  over  all 
seas,  crossing-  deserts  and  mountains,  penetrating 
the  wild  forest  and  jungle,  clutched  by  the  soldier 
dying  on  the  field  of  battle  and  by  the  wrecked 
sailor  going  down  into  his  watery  grave.  What  if 
it  should  not  be  true  ?  It  must  be  true  !  As  surely 
as  there  is  a  God  of  love  in  the  heavens  it  cannot 
be  false.  He  has  spoken  to  men  somewhere, 
and  here  if  anywhere.  Tell  us,  O  Book  !  tell  us, 
O  world !  tell  us,  O  history  !  tell  us,0  sinning  and 
sorrowinsf  heart !  is  not  this  indeed  and  in  truth 
a  record  of  God's  words  to  men? 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   WITNESS   OF    UNINSPIRED   MEN. 

We  have  seen  that  such  a  revelation  as  we  need, 
and  as  God  desires  to  make  to  us,  must,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  be  miraculous.  Any  trust- 
worthy account  or  record  of  it  by  men  must,  there- 
fore, be  necessarily  made  under  the  immediate  and 
controlling  guidance  of  God,  — that  is  to  say,  the 
writers  of  such  a  Bible  as  we  expect  from  God 
must  be  inspired. 

Now  here  comes  a  succession  of  writers,  reach- 
ing along  in  history  from  the  Exodus  to  the  death 
of  the  apostles,  who  hand  us  a  book  which  we 
open  and  find  to  be  full  of  the  records  of  miracles, 
which  they  say  is  a  revelation  of  God,  which  they 
declare  that  they  have  written  under  a  divine  im- 
pulse and  direction.  Are  these  writers  to  be 
believed  ?  In  order  to  subject  them  to  the  severest 
tests  we  will  not  just  yet  let  them  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  we  will  try  to  forget  that  the  book 
which  they  bring  us  is  wondrously  like  what  any 
revelation  of  God  to  us  must  needs  be.  Do  they 
bring  other  men,  and  other  records  and  facts  along 
with  them  as  witnesses  to  their  veracity?  This 
is  now  our  question.     Dear  friend,  they  bring  so 

62 


THE  WITNESS   OF   UNINSPIRED   MEN.         63 

much  of  this  external  evidence  with  them  that  I 
am  embarrassed  by  the  amount  of  it.  It  is  largely 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  unsuited  to  our  present 
purpose.  You  must  seek  it  in  the  learned  volume. 
Some  of  it,  however,  I  will  try  to  give  ;  not  as  an 
adequate  presentation,  but  as  a  specimen  or  hint 
of  what  might  be  said. 

Josephus  first  takes  the  stand.  He  was  a 
scholar  and  a  warrior,  whom  his  countrymen,  the 
Jews,  disowned  as  a  traitor  at  the  time  of  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem.  After  the  downfall  of  the 
sacred  city  he  went  with  the  conquerors  to  Rome, 
where  he  was  a  favorite  of  the  emperors,  and 
where  he  wrote  his  histories.  Of  such  an  one  we 
must  at  least  say  that  he  is  not  a  too  favorable  wit- 
ness. Yet  he,  speaking  for  himself  and  all  Jews, 
says :  "  We  have  not  innumerable  books  which 
contradict  each  other,  but  only  twenty-two,  which 
contain  the  history  of  all  past  times,  and  are  justly 
believed  to  be  divine.  Five  of  these  belong  to 
Moses,  and  contain  his  laws,  and  the  history  of  the 
origin  of  mankind,  and  reach  to  his  death.  This 
is  a  period  of  nearly  three  thousand  years.  From 
the  death  of  Moses  to  Artaxerxes,  who,  after 
Xerxes,  reigned  over  the  Persians,  the  prophets 
who  lived  after  Moses  wrote  down  the  events  of 
their  times  in  thirteen  books.  The  other  four 
books  contain  hymns  to  God  and  precepts  for 
men."      In   this    enumeration   the   twelve    minor 


64  ^^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

prophets  count  as  one  book.  Josephus  goes  on  to 
say :  "  What  trust  we  put  in  these  our  writings  is 
manifest  by  our  deeds.  Though  so  long  a  time 
has  elapsed,  no  one  has  dared  to  add  to  or  take 
from  them,  or  make  any  change  in  them  whatever. 
It  is,  as  it  were,  inborn  with  every  Jew,  from  the 
first  origin  of  the  nation,  to  consider  these  books 
as  the  doctrines  of  God,  to  stand  by  them  con- 
stantly, and,  if  need  be,  cheerfully  to  die  for  them. 
It  is  no  new  thing  to  see  the  captives  of  our  nation, 
many  of  them  in  number  and  at  many  different 
times,  endure  tortures  and  deaths  of  all  kinds  in 
the  public  theatres,  rather  than  utter  a  word 
against  our  laws  or  the  records  which  contain 
them."  Such  is  one  testimony  that  the  writers  of 
the  Old  Testament  are  to  be  believed.  But  what 
Josephus  and  his  whole  nation  said  and  were  ready 
to  die  for  does  not  stand  alone.  Men  of  other 
nations  confirm  the  trustworthiness  of  the  Old 
Testament  writers  more  than  I  can  here  tell. 

Go  into  the  hall  of  Syrian  antiquities  in  the 
Louvre,  when  you  may  happen  to  be  at  Paris,  and 
look  at  what  is  called  the  Moabite  stone.  Examine 
it  carefully,  for  it  has  an  interesting  history,  and 
there  is  carved  on  it  a  most  valuable  record.  It  is 
rock  of  the  hardest  species,  l)roken  into  several 
pieces,  which  have  been  carefully  fitted  together 
and  embedded  in  cement,  so  that  the  original  in- 
scription on  it  may  be  read.     The  existence  of  this 


THE  WITNESS   OF  UNINSPIRED  MEN.         05 

rock  was  made  known  to  the  French  consul  at 
Jerusalem,  as  you  may  perhaps  remember.  It 
had  been  found  in  the  land,  of  Moab,  east  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  Hearhig  that  it  was  a  very  ancient 
relic  of  some  sort,  the  consul  resolved  to  secure  it. 
Men  were  sent  to  buy  it  if  necessary,  and  to  bring 
it  away.  It  could  not  be  bought  of  those  who 
claimed  to  be  its  owners ;  and  those  sent  for  it 
were  set  upon  by  armed  men,  while  they  were 
taking  an  impression  of  characters  on  it,  and 
barely  escaped,  one  of  them  being  severely 
wounded.  The  stone  was  now  broken  into  several 
pieces  by  those  who  said  they  owned  it,  and  they 
offered  to  sell  the  pieces  to  any  pei'son  or  persons 
who  could  pay  the  very  large  price  which  they 
asked  for  them.  The  French  consul,  to  save  the 
fragments  from  being  scattered,  to  the  utter  loss 
of  the  inscription,  at  once  sent  to  negotiate  with 
the  wild  men.  At  length  the  terms  were  agreed 
upon,  and  the  pieces  secured.  They  were  put  to- 
gether, and  the  lettering  was  deciphered.  It  was 
found  to  be  nearly  three  thousand  years  old.  It 
was  a  record  of  the  wars  and  mighty  deeds  of 
Mesha,  one  of  the  kings  of  Moab.  Most  of  these 
wars  were  with  the  kings  of  Israel,  one  of  whom, 
Omri,  is  named. 

Turning  now  to  our  Bibles,  we  find  that  Moab 
paid  tribute  to  Israel  from  the  time  of  David  to 
the  death  of  Ahab.     Ahab  was  of  the  house  of 


66  'VOr  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOB. 

Omri ;  and  we  read  that  Mesha,  king  of  Moab, 
rebelled  after  Ahab  died,  and  was  successful  in 
some  of  his  wars  against  Israel.  The  two  records 
run  along  side  by  side,  and  that  of  the  Moabite 
king,  carved  on  the  rock,  confirms  that  which  we 
find  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  stone,  so  far  as 
it  says  anything  to  the  point,  says  that  the  writers 
of  the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  told  the 
truth.  Thev  ffive  us  a  record  of  events  which 
actually  occurred.  They  are  trustworthy.  They 
are  to  be  believed. 

This  Moabite  stone  is  only  a  hint,  dear  friends, 
of  the  vast  progress  which  has,  of  late  years,  been 
made  in  confirmino-  the  records  of  the  Bible. 
Something  new  is  found  almost  every  year  in 
Egypt,  in  Assyria,  or  in  the  Holy  Land.  We 
have  no  other  historical  writings  which  go  back  so 
far  as  those  of  the  Bible.  Hence,  we  formerly 
read  much  in  our  Bi])les  which  secular  history  did 
not  confirm ;  and  we  believed  it  more  because  it 
met  our  deep  want  of  a  revelation,  than  because 
there  were  external  evidences  to  its  truth.  But 
now  the  study  of  antiquit^s  the  discovery  of  old 
monuments,  enthusiastic  researches  in  cities  buried 
thousand  of  years  ago,  are  coming  to  our  help. 
It  used  to  be  said  that  the  testimonies  for  the  Bible 
were  all  in,  and  that  the  objections  to  it  were  con- 
tinually on  the  increase.  But  the  state  of  the  case 
is  getting  to  be  just  reversed.     The  objections  are 


THE  WITNESS   OF  UNINSPIRED  MEN.         67 

all  in,  and  they  are  steadily  fading  away  before 
this  new  light  which  has  begun  to  burst  upon  us 
out  of  the  sepulchre  of  the  ancient  world.  There 
is,  we  are  beginning  to  find,  a  secular  history  con- 
firmatory of  the  Bi])le  records,  written  in  stone  or 
laid  away  in  tombs,  and  going  back  to  the  dawn  of 
time.  Dr.  Schliemann  is  not  so  surely  confirming 
the  words  of  the  classic  poets,  by  what  he  has 
found  at  Troy  and  Mycenfe,  as  others  are  confirm- 
ing Moses  and  the  prophets  by  what  they  are  find- 
ing along  the  Nile,  on  either  slope  of  the  Jordan, 
and  at  Nineveh  and  Babylon. 

A  traveller  once  asked  a  friend,  who  was  familiar 
with  Egypt  and  its  antiquities,  where  he  could 
find  a  guide-book  to  that  country.  "  Your  Bible," 
said  he.  "Take  that.  The  Bible  is  the  best." 
This  man  had  gone  over  the  land.  He  had  stud- 
ied the  picture-writing  and  the  emblems  on  its 
obelisks  and  the  walls  of  its  half-buried  temples. 
He  had  groped  his  way  into  p3a'amid,  into  cata- 
comb ;  had  seen  the  papyrus  with  its  long-buried 
testimony  coming  forth.  The  nature  of  the  idol- 
atry, the  forms  of  Avorship,  the  habits  of  priests, 
the  learning  and  the  civil  and  military  customs  of 
the  early  times  had  loner  been  his  study.  And  he 
knew  that  so  much  of  the  Bible  as  pertained  to 
Egypt  could  be  no  myth,  no  legend,  but  must 
have  been  written  by  one  who  had  lived  in  Egypt, 
and  who  described  events  which  he  had  seen. 


68  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOB. 

So  if  we  go  to  Assyria,  and  there  read  those 
libraries  of  brick  and  stone  which  Rawlinson  and 
others  have  opened  to  us,  we  find  that  so  much  of 
the  Old  Testament  as  has  to  do  with  Assyria  is 
wonderfully  confirmed.  We  find  there,  in  cunei- 
form letters,  either  cut  in  the  stones  or  stamped 
on  the  bricks,  clear  traditions  of  the  flood,  and  of 
the  buildino-  of  Babel  and  its  tower.  Passing^  on 
to  the  times  when  the  kings  of  Israel  began  to  be 
at  war  with  the  kings  of  Assyria,  or  in  alliance 
with  them,  we  find  the  witness  to  the  accuracy  of 
the  Bible  records  all  that  we  could  expect.  The 
Bible  says  that  Tiglath-Pileser  "took  Damascus 
and  slew  Rezin,"  at  the  request  of  Ahaz,  king  of 
Judah ;  and  an  Assyrian  fragment  says  that  he 
defeated  Rezin,  captured  Damascus,  and  took 
tribute  of  the  king  of  Samaria.  The  Bible  says 
that  the  father  of  Sennacherib  fouoht  ao^ainst 
Ashdod  and  took  it,  and  in  the  annals  of  Assyria 
it  is  said  that  he  made  war  in  Southern  Syria,  and 
took  Ashdod.  The  Bible  says  that  Sennacherib 
came  up  against  Judah,  and  took  its  fenced  cities, 
and  made  Hezekiah  pay  tribute ;  the  Assyrian 
annals  say  the  same  thing,  and  that  too  at  much 
greater  length.  Of  Sennacherib's  second  invasion, 
which  was  so  fatal  to  him,  and  which  the  Bible  so 
minutely  describes,  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  very 
naturally  say  nothing ;  but  there  is  an  Egyptian 
version  of  the  event,  in  which  the  destruction  of 


THE  WITNESS   OF   UNINSPIRED  3IEN.         69 

Sennacherib's  host  is  ascribed  to  divine  power. 
The  Bible  says  that  Esarhaddon  "took  Manasseh 
among  the  thorns,  and  bound  him  with  fetters, 
and  carried,  him  away  to  Babylon"  ;  Esavhaddon's 
own  annals  say  that  among  his  tributaries  was 
"Manasseh,  king  of  Judah." 

To  these  notices  of  contemporary  history,  con- 
firming Bible  history  just  before  the  captivity,  I 
might  add  others  which  bear  witness  that  the 
Bible  account  of  the  captivity  itself  is  correct. 
There  are,  among  the  excavated  trophies  at  Baby- 
lon, bas-reliefs  and  other  sculptures  of  figures  and 
utensils  belonging  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
which  witness  to  the  truth  of  what  our  Bibles  tell 
us.  Even  after  the  captivity,  what  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  say  of  the  return,  and  the  rebuilding  of 
the  temple,  is  vouched  for  by  the  monuments  of 
the  conquerors.  For  instance,  we  are  surprised 
to  see  how  like  worshippers  of  the  true  God  Cyrus, 
Darius,  and  Artaxerxes  speak  in  their  proclama- 
tions. But  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  have  abun- 
dantly shown  that  those  kings  believed  in  one 
supreme  God,  and  would  naturally  use  such  words 
as  the  Bible  puts  in  their  mouth.  The  Bible  says 
that  a  decree  was  issued  stopping  the  work  on  the 
temple,  but  that  it  was  removed  in  the  time  of 
Darius  the  Persian ;  and  on  the  monuments  re- 
cently found  Darius  says,  "  I  restored  to  the  people 
the  religious  ^vorship  of  which  the   3>Iagian  had 


70  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

deprived  them.     As  it  was  before  so  I  arranoed 
it." 

I  do  not  claim  that  I  have  wholly  mastered  this 
subject  of  external  evidences.  Or  if  I  had,  it  is 
too  great  a  subject,  requiring  too  much  careful 
study  and  collation  of  parallel  passages  in  the 
Bible  and  on  ancient  monuments  to  l)e  adequately 
or  properly  treated  in  this  volume.  Please  con- 
sider what  I  have  given  as  only  hinting  at  the  vast 
mass  which  might  be  adduced.  And  the  most 
encouraging  fact  about  this  evidence  is  that  it  is 
all  the  time  accumulating.  Prol^ably  never  was 
there  more  of  it  brought  to  light  in  the  same 
length  of  time  than  has  been  unearthed  and 
deciphered  during  the  last  fifty  years.  And  from 
all  that  scholars  engaged  in  that  kind  of  researches 
say,  we  may  infer  that  their  discoveries  have  but 
just  begun.  Out  of  the  magnificent  tombs  of 
ancient  warriors  and  kings  in  the  East,  new  wit- 
nesses are  all  the  time  leaping  forth,  who  tell  us 
that  the  writers  of  the  Bible  have  given  us  a  true 
record  of  what  they  themselves  heard  and  saw. 

That  the  Old  Testament  is  at  least  as  trustworthy 
as  the  New  is  clear  from  the  way  in  which  the 
New  Testament  writers  speak  of  it.  In  the  whole 
New  Testament  we  find  no  intimation  that  any- 
thing in  the  Old  Testament  is  untrue.  Some  of 
the  ancient  books  are  quoted  much  oftener  than  the 
others,  —  a  few  of  them  perhaps  not  even  once; 


THE  WITNESS   OF   UNINSPIBED   MEN.         71 

but  they  are  all  classed  together,  and  held  to  be 
the  truth,  which  holy  men  wrote  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  the  Old  Testament  is  either  quoted  or 
alluded  to  more  than  ninety  times  ;  in  Luke,  fifty- 
eight  times,  and  in  John,  forty.  There  are  nearly 
eighty  references  to  it  in  Eomans,  and  more  than 
eighty  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  Reve- 
lation of  St.  John  is  so  like  some  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment prophecies,  especially  those  of  Daniel,  as 
hardly  to  read  like  a  New  Testament  book.  Some 
critics  have  thought  that  there  are  in  it  as  many  as 
two  hundred  references  to  the  ancient  canon.  If, 
therefore,  the  New  Testament  writers  are  to  be 
believed,  those  of  the  Old  are  to  be,  and  were 
inspired. 

But  the  external  testimonies  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  very  abundant.  We  do  not  have  to  dig 
among  the  ruins  of  buried  cities  for  them ;  the 
secular  history  of  Palestine,  and  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  are  before  us  in  clear  records,  and  these 
asrree  with  the  New  Testament  accounts.  What 
the  four  gospels  say  of  the  political  status  of  the 
Jews,  and  of  the  Roman  governors  placed  over 
them,  the  history  of  Rome  fully  confirms.  And 
if  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  the  Acts  and  the 
Revelation,  are  witnessed  to  as  accurate  by  con- 
temporary history,  in  what  they  have  to  say  of 
the  persons  and  common  events  of  their  times, 


72  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

then  it  would  be  contrary  to  all  reason  for  us  to 
doubt  them  when  they  say  that  they  speak  unto 
us  the  words  of  God.  It  is  not  possible  to  believe 
that  they,  who  are  so  conscientiously  accurate  on 
the  lower  plane  of  temporal  things,  should  be 
regardless  of  truth  on  the  higher  plane  of  spiritual 
things.  Since  they  say  that  they  bring  us  a 
revelation  from  God  to  men,  we  must  believe  that 
they  do,  and  we  must  concede  to  them  the  inspira- 
tion which  the  case  demands,  and  which  they  claim. 
We  must  do  this  unless  we  go  as  far  as  those  who, 
in  the  wildness  of  their  unbelief,  deny  that  there 
ever  were  any  such  persons  as  Christ  and  his 
apostles ;  who  affirm  that  the  New  Testament 
books  were  simply  made  up  and  invented.  But 
Christ  and  his  apostles  did  live,  or  nothing  is 
certain  which  took  place  a  few  hundred  3'ears  ago. 
Christ  did  live,  and  teach,  and  heal,  and  love,  and 
die,  as  the  four  gospels  say  he  did ;  and  the 
apostles  and  others  did  write  as  our  Bibles  say 
they  did.  Nearly  all  these  writings,  certainly  the 
most  important  of  them,  were  well  known  within 
a  hundred  years  after  the  crucifixion. 

The  martyr  Ignatius,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
some  of  the  apostles,  was  familiar  with  those 
writings.  He  speaks  as  though  they  "were  all 
well-known  and  undoubted  truths,  "  of  the  descent 
of  Christ  from  David  —  his  conception  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  —  his  birth  of  a  virgin  —  her  name. 


THE  WITNESS   OF   UNINSPIRED  MEN.         73 

Mary  —  his  manifestation  bj'' a  star — his  baptism 
by  John  —  his  appeals  to  the  prophets  — -.  the 
anointing  of  his  head  with  ointment  —  his  sufter- 
ings  and  crucifixion  under  Pihite  and  Herod  the 
tetrarch  —  his  resurrection,  not  on  the  Sabbath, 
but  on  the  Lord's  Day — his  eating  and  drinking 
with  his  disciples  after  he  had  risen  —  the  mission 
of  the  apostles  —  their  obedience  to  Christ  —  their 
authority  over  the  Church  —  the  inclusion  of  Sts. 
Peter  and  Paul  in  their  number."^  What  this 
martyr,  Ignatius,  says,  his  teacher.  Poly  carp, 
another  martyr,  says ;  and  Polycarp  says  that  he 
took  it  from  the  lips  of  St.  John,  whose  pupil  he 
was.  And  what  these  martyrs  say  other  martyrs 
—  Eusebius,  Justin,  Origen,  Tertullian  —  who 
lived  at  the  same  time  with  them,  or  shortly  after, 
also  say.  It  was  only  a  little  more  than  a  hundred 
years  after  the  crucifixion  that  Justin  wrote  ;  and 
it  has  been  well  said  that  from  his  writings  there 
"  might  be  collected  a  tolerably  complete  account 
of  Christ's  life,  in  all  points  agreeing  with  that 
which  is  given  in  our  Scriptures."  So  manifest 
is  it  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  were  real  histori- 
cal persons,  that  the  New  Testament  w\as  written 
by  the  apostles  and  their  attendants,  that  it  was 
widely  known  and  accepted  as  the  message  of 
God  to  men  while  they  yet  lived,  and  shortly  after. 
They  declared  that  they  wrote  and  spoke  by  the 
'  Prof.  George  Rawlinson's  "  Historical  Evidences." 


74  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

direction  of  God,  and  they  had  no  selfish  or 
worldly  object  to  gain.  They  turned  their  back 
on  all  worldly  prospects,  and  cheerfully  accepted 
hardship  and  suflering,  not  refusing  a  martyr's 
death,  that  they  might  publish  abroad  the  words 
God  had  given  them.  They  give  such  words  as 
God  alone  could  speak,  and  they  describe  deeds 
and  events  which  transcend  any  power  not  divine. 
Not  only  did  they  seal  their  testimony  at  the  stake, 
or  in  the  arena,  but  their  successors  were  equally 
ready  to  die  for  what  they  had  learned  in  their 
writings.  Go  down  into  the  catacombs  of  Rome, 
walk  through  their  nine-hundred  miles  of  streets, 
consider  that  it  is  largely  the  dust  of  Christian 
martyrs  which  sleeps  in  those  millions  of  graves, 
and  what  further  need  of  witness  can  you  have? 
There  is  hardly  a  statement  in  the  Old  Testament 
or  the  New,  but  again  stands  out  in  emblem, 
picture,  or  inscription,  on  those  deep-buried  tombs. 
The  Coliseum  lifts  up  its  vast  and  silent  walls  to 
tell  us  that  our  Bible  is  from  God,  and  that 
thousands  of  noble  women,  scholars,  tender  and 
delicate  youths,  would  rather  be  thrown  to  the 
lions  than  deny  it. 

Not  only  have  we  the  testimony  of  Egyptian 
and  Assyrian  monuments,  and  much  written  his- 
tory, especially  that  of  Greece  and  Rome,  but  the 
very  geography  of  Palestine  testifies  that  the  Bible 
is  what  it  claims  to  be.     Many  Christians,  waver- 


THE  WITNESS   OF  UNINSPIRED  MEN.         75 

ing  in  their  faith,  have  had  that  faith  confirmed  by 
ffoing  over  Galilee  and  Samaria  with  the  open 
Bible  in  hand.  Unbelievers  have  been  converted 
to  Christ  by  studying  the  antiquities  of  Jerusalem 
and  its  neighborhood.  If  any  one  doubts  that  the 
Bible  is  a  true  history ;  that  its  writers  were 
honest  men ;  that  they  are  what  they  claim  to  be, 
bearers  of  a  revelation  of  God  to  us,  let  him  go  to 
the  Holy  Land,  and  there,  from  valley  and  hill, 
from  sea  and  plain,  from  city  and  stream,  from 
gardens  and  from  graves,  shall  come  a  voice  as  the 
voice  of  many  waters,  turning  his  doubt  into  joy- 
ous faith. 

This  external  evidence,  of  which  I  have  now 
given  you  but  a  few  hints,  is  so  vast,  dear  friend, 
as  to  be  positively  amazing.  Like  the  Highland 
chieftain,  we  have  only  to  stamp  our  foot,  and 
swift  witnesses  start  up,  and  gather  about  us,  out 
of  every  department  of  ancient  research.  They 
declare  that  the  Bible  is  not  a  human  book,  but 
divine  ;  that  its  writers  are  worthy  of  implicit 
belief,  even  when  they  say  that  they  write  under 
the  guidance  and  control  of  God.  These  wit- 
nesses have  many  of  them  been  hostile  to  God's 
kingdom  on  earth,  have  fought  against  his  people, 
persecuted  them,  and  put  them  to  cruel  deaths ; 
but  this,  so  far  from  weakening  their  testimony,  only 
makes  it  the  more  unanswerable,  the  more  convin- 
cing, a  more  complete  and  final  ending  of  all  doubt. 


76  ^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

You  remember  that  once,  when  our  Lord  had 
mercy  on  a  poor  demoniac,  setting  him  free  from 
the  evil  spirits  which  tormented  him,  even  those 
spirits  were  constrained  to  testify  that  he  was  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  most  higli  God.  Thus  it  is 
that  the  monuments  and  annals  of  pagan  races,  and 
of  kingdoms  which  have  sought  to  displace  our 
Lord's  kingdom,  nevertheless  declare  that  he,  and 
his  words,  and  all  whom  he  has  inspired  to  speak 
concerning  him,  are  God's  chosen  means  by  which 
he  reveals  himself  to  men.  They  send  us  such 
word,  dear  friend,  as  the  wife  of  Pilate  sent  to 
him  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  trial.  If  we  are 
tempted  to  reject  the  Bible,  as  the  Jews  were 
tempting  Pilate  to  reject  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  let  us 
remember  her  words.  An  artist  has  made  a  pic- 
ture in  which  is  given,  in  marvellous  coloring 
and  perspective,  what  he  imagined  her  to  have 
seen  in  her  dream.  She  is  painted  as  seeing  the 
whole  future  of  Christianity,  —  its  early  struggles 
and  martyrdoms,  its  growing  successes,  its  power 
widening  through  the  world,  its  final  victories, 
and  the  glory  and  dominion  which  shall  crown  it 
when  Christ  returns.  Somethinsc  like  this  he 
imasrines  her  to  have  seen  in  the  visions  of  her 
bed,  by  which  she  was  moved  to  send  to  Pilate 
the  startling  message,  "  Have  thou  nothing  to  do 
with  that  just  man ;  for  I  have  suflered  many 
things  this  day  in  a  dream  because  of  him."     Like 


TTJE  WITNESS   OF  UNINSPIRED  MEN.         77 

this,  my  dear  friend,  is  the  message  concerning 
our  Bible  which  secular  and  even  pagan  history 
sends  us  to-day. 

As  the  damsel  with  the  spirit  of  divination  said 
of  Paul  and  Silas,  "  These  men  are  the  servants  of 
the  most  high  God,  which  shew  unto  us  the  way  of 
salvation,"  so  the  many  witnesses  which  I  have 
called  up  out  of  the  dark  placesof  heathenism  say. 
And  they  speak  thus  not  only  of  St.  Paul  and  his 
companions,  but  of  our  blessed  Lord,  who  is  above 
all,  and  of  the  prophets,  of  Moses,  of  the  annalists, 
and  sweet  singers  of  ancient  Israel.  "  He  shews 
unto  us  the  way  of  salvation,"  they  say,  when  we 
hear  Christ  declare,  "  Though  I  bare  record  of 
myself,  yet  ray  record  is  true."  "  Do  nothing 
against  those  true  and  just  men,  for  they  show 
unto  us  the  way  of  salvation,"  is  still  the  united 
voice  of  these  many  witnesses,  when  we  hear  one 
of  the  apostles  say,  "That  which  was  from  the 
beginning,  which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have 
seen  with  our  ej^es,  which  we  have  looked  upon, 
and  which  our  hands  have  handled,  —  that  Eternal 
life  which  was  with  the  Father,  declare  we  unto 
you." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TESTIMONY  OF  THE   PROPHECIES. 

We,  in  the  last  chapter,  looked  at  the  testi- 
monies to  the  truth  of  the  Bible  with  which  history 
abounds.  The  monuments  and  inscriptions  of  the 
buried  past,  and  secular  historians  who  were  con- 
temporary with  the  writers  of  the  Bible,  certify  to 
the  accuracy  of  the  Bible  records.  They  tell  us 
that  what  we  read  in  our  Sacred  Book  is  worthy 
of  implicit  belief.  Not  only  does  God  desire  to 
reveal  himself  to  us,  and  not  only  has  he  power 
to  make  such  a  revelation,  and  not  only  must  the 
men  who  receive  and  write  out  this  revelation  be 
inspired  of  God  to  do  it,  but  here  we  have  a  book 
which  claims  that  it  is  a  revelation  of  God  to  us, 
and  whose  writers  claim  to  be  inspired.  The  first 
of  these  claims,  that  the  Bible  is  God's  message 
to  us,  was  sufficiently  considered  in  the  third 
chapter ;  nor  need  the  claim  of  the  writers  of  the 
Bible,  that  they  were  inspired  to  write  accurately 
what  they  wrote,  now  detain  us  long.  We  saw 
in  the  fourth  chapter  that  from  the  nature  of  the 
case  the}^  must  be  inspired  in  order  to  be  equal  to 
their  work,  and  the  secular  monuments  and  history 
78 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  PROPHECIES.  79 

say  that  they  should  be  believed  if  they  claim  that 
they  wrote  by  inspiration  of  God. 

That  they  do  make  this  claim  is  obvious  on 
almost  every  page  of  the  Bible.  Moses  and  the 
prophets  declared  that  they  spake  God's  words  to 
the  people,  and  that  in  what  they  wrote  down  God 
guided  and  kept  them.  This  claim  of  the  Old 
Testament  writers  is  not  only  conceded,  but  every- 
where insisted  upon,  in  the  New.  St.  Paul, 
writing  to  Timothy,  says,  ''All  Scripture  is  given 
by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  instruction  in  righteousness ; 
that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works."  Not  less  decisive 
than  these  words  are  those  of  Peter,  where  he 
says,  referring  to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  "  The 
prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man, 
but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved 
by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Whenever  the  first  preachers 
of  Christ  went  among  the  scattered  Jews,  they 
began  with  the  Old  Testament  as  an  accepted  basis 
of  truth,  on  which  they  and  their  hearers  could 
stand  together.  And  in  this  custom  they  but 
followed  the  example  of  Christ.  He  nowhere 
questioned  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testament ;  he 
continually  reasoned  out  of  it ;  he  gave  to  its  words 
a  diviner  meaning  than  many  to  whom  he  spoke 
had  done ;  he  said,  in  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
that  he  came  not  to  destroy  the  law  and  the  pro- 
phets, but  to  fulfil. 


80  ^OT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

Cliri«t  wrote  nothing  himself.  But  he  claimed 
to  be  far  above  that  plane  of  inspiration  on  Avhich 
the  writers  of  the  Bible  stood.  He  was  God 
dwelling  in  the  flesh  and  speaking  to  men.  He 
said  that  no  man  had  seen  God  at  any  time,  but 
that  he,  who  dwelt  in  the  bosom  of  God,  had 
declared  him.  He  declared  not  only  that  he  spoke 
the  truth,  but' that  he  was  the  truth.  Unto  Pilate 
he  said,  "  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear 
witness  to  the  truth."  And  to  another,  Avho 
doubted  who  he  was,  he  said,  "  He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father,  and  how  say  est  thou, 
then,  show  us  the  Father?"  Such  was  the  su- 
preme claim  which  Christ  made  for  himself;  and 
not  only  this,  but  he  made  promises  of  special 
guidance  to  those  who  should  record  his  words. 
Here  is  what  he  says,  "  These  things  have  I  spoken 
unto  you,  being  yet  present  with  you.  But  the 
Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you 
all  things,  and  shall  bring  all  things  to  your 
remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you." 
This  was  the  promise,  and  the  writers  of  the 
gospels  and  the  epistles  everywhere  assume  that 
it  was  fulfilled  to  each  one  of  them.  Our  attention 
is  again  and  again  called  to  this  fact.  The  apostles 
claimed  so  to  speak  the  words  of  God  that  whoso- 
ever despised  them    despised   not  men  but  God. 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  PROPHECIES.  81 

"1  have  received  of  the  Lord  that  which  also  I 
delivered  unto  you,"  said  St.  Paul  to  the  Corin- 
thians.    The  form  in  which  he  began  most  of  his 
letters,  "Paul,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  the 
will  of  God,"  shows  that  he  claimed  to  be  speci- 
ally authorized  to   speak    God's  words    to   men. 
His    language    covers    the   whole    case,    both   for 
himself,  and  all  whom  Christ  commissioned,  where 
he  says,  "  We  speak   the  wisdom  of  God  in  a 
mystery,   even   the   hidden   wisdom,   which    God 
ordained  before  the  world  unto  our  glory,  which 
none  of  the  princes  of  this  world  knew,  .    .   .  but 
God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his  spirit.  .  .  . 
We  have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but 
the  spirit  which  is  of  God,  that  we  might  know 
the  things  which  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God ; 
which  things  also  we  speak,    not   in   the    words 
which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy 
Ghost   teacheth  .   .    .  for   who    hath    known   the 
mind  of  the   Lord?    but  we  have   the  mind  of 
Christ."     Thus   explicitly  do   the  writers  of  the 
Bible  claim  that  they  liring  us  a  revelation  of  God, 
and  that  they  give  it  to  us  in  words  which  God 
has  taught  them.    And  we  saw,  in  the  last  chapter, 
that  the  voice  of  antiquit}^  of  contemporary  his- 
tory, the  very  geography  of  Palestine,   and  the 
lives  and  deaths   of  those  who  claimed  to  come 
from  God,  all  declare  that  their  claim  cannot  be 
doubted,  but  that  they  are  God's  true  and  fliithful 


82  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF    GOD. 

witnesses  to  us.  An'd  we  open  the  volume,  and 
we  find  it,  as  we  should  expect  to  tind  a  true 
revelation  of  God,  —  full  of  the  supernatural,  of 
miracles,  of  the  very  footprints  and  handiwork 
of  God  himself. 

But  there  is  one  proof  that  the  Bible  is  God's 
book  which  I  now  wish  especially  to  point  out, 
and  that  is  the  fullihnent  of  prophecy.  Men  may 
guess  at  the  future  with  more  or  less  probability, 
but  they  cannot  positively  declare  it.  They  may 
put  together  causes  and  influences  which  are  at 
work  on  the  plane  of  the  finite,  and  confidently 
foretell  what  results  will  follow.  But  when  they 
rise  to  the  infinite,  to  events  which  neither  men 
nor  nature,  but  God  alone  must  bring  to  pass, 
they  know  not  anything, — not  what  shall  be  on 
the  morrow,  or  what  an  hour  may  bring  forth. 
When,  therefore,  we  read  in  our  Bible  that  God 
made .  known  what  he  would  do  some  time  in  the 
remote  future,  and  find  that  he  did  as  was  so  long- 
before  predicted  that  he  would,  we  must  admit 
that  the  Bible  is  God's  book  ;  especially  must  w^e 
admit  this  wdien  we  find  that  not  one  prophecy, 
nor  two,  but  many,  making  a  large  part  of  the 
volume,  came  true  ages  or  centuries  after  they 
were  made. 

Observe  that  I  now  speak  only  of  fulfilled  pro- 
phecies, not  of  the  unfulfilled.  On  this  wide  and 
uncertain  sea  1  do  not  propose  to  embark.     Nor 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  PBOPHECIES.  83 

do  I  undertake  to  make  a  list  of  the  prophecies 
which  have  been  clearly  fulfilled.  Possibly  they 
are  more,  possibly  less  than  I  might  think.  No 
great  rebellion  or  war  takes  place,  and  no  states- 
man rises  up  to  change  the  relations  of  states  and 
kingdoms,  but  some  will  see  in  it  the  fulfilment  of 
ancient  prophecy.  They  may  see  rightly  at  times, 
l)ut  they  do  not  always  agree,  they  change  their 
views ;  the  same  prophecy  has  been  applied  to 
many  different  persons  or  events.  In  regard  to 
the  prophecies  which  are  clearly  unfulfilled,  as 
those  pertaining  to  the  second  coming  of  our  Lord, 
I  have  nothing  to  say.  It  is  not  for  me  to  say 
just  when  or  just  how  they  will  be  fulfilled.  I 
know  that  they  tell  us  of  a  wondrous  and  glorious 
reappearing,  and.  with  that  I  comfort  my  heart. 
I  only  wait  and  watch,  leaving  God  to  be  his  own 
interpreter.  Some  prophecies  may  be  having 
their  fulfihuent  in  the  present,  as  it  is  certain  that 
others  point  on  into  the  future ;  but  here,  amid 
this  confusion  and  uncertainty,  is  no  ground  on 
which  to  put  an  argument  for  the  divine  origin  of 
the  Bible.  I  go  back,  therefore,  from  all  this  to 
those  prophecies  which  have  already  had  their 
clear  and  final  fulfilment ;  whose  voice,  foretelling 
what  should  be  in  the  ages  to  come,  has  been  dis- 
tinctly responded  to  by  the  voice  of  history. 

First  to  be  noticed  among  these  are  those  early 
prophecies  which  relate  to  the  calling,  the  growth 


84  ^^OT  OF  3rAN,    BUT   OF  GOD. 

and  triumph,  the  captivity,  the  recall  and  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jewish  people.  It  was  more 
than  four  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Joshua 
led  Israel  into  Canaan  that  God  came  to  Abraham, 
who  was  then  at  Bethel,  and  said  to  him,  "  Lift  up 
now  thine  eyes,  and  look  from  the  place  Avhere 
thou  art,  northward,  and  southward,  and  eastward, 
and  westward  :  for  all  the  land  which  thou  seest, 
to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed  forever. 
And  I  will  make  thy  seed  as  the  dust  of  the  earth : 
so  that  if  a  man  can  number  the  dust  of  the  earth, 
then  shall  thy  seed  also  be  numbered.  Arise, 
walk  through  the  land,  in  the  length  of  it,  and  in 
the  breadth  of  it ;  for  I  will  give  it  unto  thee." 
Here  now  is  a  distinct  prophecy  that  Abraham's 
descendants  should  be  very  numerous,  and  that 
they  should  for  a  long  time  have  possession  of 
Canaan.  Going  down  the  stream  of  time  nearly 
five  hundred  years,  we  find  that  the  Israelites  have 
passed  over  Jordan,  that  they  have  driven  out  the 
Canaanites,  and  that  it  is  said,  "These  are  the 
countries  which  the  children  of  Israel  inherited  in 
the  land  of  Canaan,  which  Eleazer  the  priest,  and 
Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  and  the  heads  of  the 
fiithers  of  the  tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
distributed  for  inheritance  to  them."  Such  is  the 
record.  All,  from  beginning  to  end,  has  taken 
place  under  God's  ordering,  and  by  his  help,  and 
in  fulfilment  of  what   he   foretold  to  Abram,  his 


TESTIMONY   OF  THE  PROPHECIES.  85 

friend.  We  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for 
history  to  re-echo  more  surely  the  voice  of  pro- 
phec}^ ;  and  since  it  is  a  Avork  of  omniscience  thus 
to  foretell  the  future,  the  Bible  must  be  God's 
book. 

Take  next  the  prophecy  concerning  the  bond- 
age in  Egypt.  God  said  unto  Abram  :  "  Know  of 
a  surety  that  thy  seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land 
that  is  not  theirs,  and  shall  serve  them  ;  and  they 
shall  afflict  them  four  hundred  years  :  and  also 
that  nation  whom  they  shall  serve  will  I  judge, 
and  afterwards  shall  they  come  out  with  great  sub- 
stance." Was  this  prophecy  fulfilled?  Look  for- 
ward two  hundred  years,  and  you  read  this 
historical  record  :  "  And  the  sons  of  Israel  carried 
Jacob  their  father,  and  their  little  ones,  and  their 
wives  in  the  wagons  which  Pharaoh  had  sent  to 
carry  him.  And  they  took  their  cattle  and  their 
goods,  which  they  had  gotten  in  the  land  of 
Canaan,  and  came  into  Egypt,  Jacob  and  all  his 
seed  Avith  him."  Pass  on  a  little  farther,  and 
you  read  this  :  "  Noav  there  arose  up  a  new  king 
over  Egypt,  Avhich  knew  not  Joseph ;  and  he  said  : 
"  The  children  of  Israel  are  more  and  mightier 
than  we.  Come  on,  let  us  deal  wisely  with  them. 
.  .  .  Therefore  did  they  set  over  them  task- 
masters, to  afflict  them  with  their  burdens."  Still 
passing  on  two  hundred  years,  you  find  this  bit  of 
history :    "  And   Moses    stretched   forth  his  hand 


86  ^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

over  the  sea.  .  .  .  And  the  waters  returned, 
and  covered  the  chariots  and  the  horsemen,  and 
all  the  hosts  of  Pharaoh.  .  .  .  But  the  children 
of  Israel  walked  upon  dry  land.  .  .  .  And 
Israel  saw  that  great  work  which  the  Lord  did 
upon  the  Egyptians."  Thus  did  the  pen  of  his- 
tory, in  the  hand  of  Moses,  write  down  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  prophecy  to  Abram, — the  going 
down,  all  the  oppression,  and  the  mighty  deliver- 
ance. 

How  distinctly  God  has  put  his  own  mark  on 
the  Bible  we  shall  again  see  if  we  read  the 
prophecy  which  he  put  into  the  mouth  of  Balaam, 
who  came  to  curse  Israel,  but  was  made  to  bless 
him.  That  prophecy  was :  ''  It  shall  be  said  of 
Jacob,  and  of  Israel,  what  hath  God  wrought? 
Behold,  the  people  shall  rise  up  as  a  great  lion,  and 
lift  up  himself  as  a  young  lion :  he  shall  not  lie 
down  until  he  eat  of  the  prey,  and  drink  the 
blood  of  the  slain."  Was  here  a  foretelling  of  the 
future  such  as  God  alone  could  do  ?  Go  forward 
to  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon,  and  you  shall 
see.  Nearly  six  hundred  years  pass  away,  and  in 
the  victories  of  David,  in  the  building  of  the 
temple,  in  the  glory  and  wisdom  which  awoke  the 
wonder  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  you  tind  all  that 
was  told  so  long  before  coming  to  pass.  You  read 
the  prophecy  and  the  history,  and  you  say  :  "  This 
is  not  a  human  book,  —  this  book  is  from  God.'' 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  PROPHECIES.  87 

Not  only  the  growth,  but  the  falling  apart  and 
decay  of  Israel  were  prophesied  long  before  they 
came.  The  Lord  said  to  Moses:  "Behold,  thou 
shalt  sleep  with  thy  fathers ;  and  this  people  will 
rise  up  and  go  after  the  gods  of  the  strangers  of 
the  land,  and  will  forsake  me,  and  break  my 
covenant.  Then  my  anger  shall  be  kindled 
against  them,  and  I  will  forsake  them,  and  they 
shall  be  devoured,  and  many  evils  and  troubles 
shall  befall  them.  Look  forward  five  hundred 
years,  and  read  the  history  of  Israel  from  the  time 
the  nation  was  divided  until  the  captivity  at 
Babylon,  and  you  see  how  true  that  early 
prophecy  was.  No  man  could  have  made  it. 
Reasoning  from  cause  to  effect,  looking  at  what 
God  had  done  for  Israel  and  Avas  yet  to  do,  we 
should  have  said  that  they  could  not  fall  away  and 
be  destroyed.  The  prediction  was  just  contrary 
to  all  the  probabilities  in  the  case,  yet  it  was  ter- 
ril)ly  fulfilled. 

It  would  take  too  much  time  even  to  point  out 
the  prophecies  of  the  carrying  away  to  Babylon, 
and  of  the  return.  They  began  to  be  uttered 
many  years  before  the  events  took  place,  and  you 
know  how  literally  they  came  true.  When  you 
find  what  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  foretold  cominof  to 
pass  in  the  time  of  Daniel,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah, 
you  are  forced  to  recognize  Him  who  sees  the  end 
from  the  bes-inninsf. 


88  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

Turning  now  to  another  class  of  prophecies, 
relating  to  cities  and  nations,  how  do  you  account 
for  the  fact  that  their  truth  is  so  confirmed  by  his- 
tory? How  often  men  have  predicted  the  decay 
of  great  cities,  as  London,  Paris,  New  York,  Bos- 
ton, —  yet  those  cities  flourish  on  !  Not  so,  how- 
ever, when  God  opens  his  mouth.  He  speaks,  and 
it  is  done.  Perhaps  you  have  travelled  in  the 
East ;  have  sat  amid  the  ruins  of  Tyre.  If  so,  ask 
yourself  whether  it  was  man  or  God  Avho  said, 
twenty-five  hundred  years  ago :  "  They  shall  be 
sorely  pained  at  the  report  of  Tyre.  ...  Is 
this  your  joyous  city  whose  antiquity  is  of  ancient 
days?  The  Lord  of  hosts  hath  purposed  it,  to 
stain  the  pride  of  all  glory,  and  to  bring  into  con- 
tempt all  the  honorable  of  the  earth." 

If  you  have  gone  through  the  land  of  Egypt, 
have  you  not  been  obliged  to  own  that  it  was  not 
man,  but  God,  who,  two  thousand  years  ago,  said  : 
"  The  daughter  of  Egypt  shall  be  confounded  ;  she 
shall  be  delivered  into  the  hand  of  the  people  of 
the  North.  Behold,  I  will  punish  the  multitude 
of  the  land  of  No,  and  Pharaoh,  and  Egypt,  with 
their  gods  and  their  kings." 

Perhaps  no  one  of  you  has  visited  the  site  of 
ancient  Babylon.  It  Avas  so  destroyed,  and 
wasted,  and  buried  out  of  sight  long  ago  that  men 
were  uncertain  where  it  stood.  Yet  centuries  be- 
fore this  wasting  began,  when  all  things  seemed 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE   PROPHECIES.  89 

to  favor  the  continuance  of  its  power  and  glory, 
Jeremiali  said  of  it :  "  Because  of  the  wrath  of  the 
Lord  it  shall  not  be  inhabited,  but  it  shall  be 
wholly  desolate  ;  every  one  that  goeth  by  Babylon 
shall  be  astonished,  and  hiss  at  all  her  plagues." 
Think  you,  as  you  see  modern  engineers  bringing 
the  ruins  of  Babylon  out  into  the  light,  that  Jere- 
miah was  mistaken  in  saying  that  the  words  he 
spoke  were  not  his  own ;  but  words  which  God 
gave  him  to  speak?  You  know  that  he  could  not 
be  mistaken.  He  did  speak  and  write  the  counsel 
of  God. 

Read  the  history  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  —  its 
whole  history,  if  you  would  see  how  it  fulfils  early 
prophecies ;  read  its  history  since  our  Lord  came 
in  the  flesh,  and  see  how  it  fulfils  his  sad  words. 
"  He  beheld  the  city  and  wept  over  it,  saying.  .  .  . 
the  days  shall  come  upon  thee,  that  thine  enemies 
shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass  thee 
round,  and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall 
lay  thee  even  with  the  ground,  and  thy  children 
within  thee,  and  they  shall  not  leave  in  thee  one 
stone  upon  another."  You  know  how  all  this 
came  true  within  a  generation,  so  that  the  disciples 
had  need  to  heed  their  Lord's  words  as  to  what 
they  should  do  when  they  saw  Jerusalem  com- 
passed with  armies.  Having  read  the  sor- 
rowful words  of  the  Master,  and  then  seeing  how 
literally  history  fulfilled  them  all,  you  can  but  say, 


90  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

as  some  suid  while  he  was  in  the  flesh  :  "This  is 
the  Son  of  God  :  never  man  spake  like  this  man." 
Turn  again  to  the  Messianic  prophecies,  which 
beofan  in  the  o-arden  of  Eden  and  reached  all 
through  the  Old  Testament  times.  The  promise 
was  made  to  Eve  that  a  deliverer  should  come.  It 
was  repeated  to  Abraham.  Moses  called  special 
attention  to  it.  It  appears  in  the  prophecy  of 
Balaam  ;  Joshua  and  the  law  of  Canaan  were  types 
of  Christ.  As  we  get  further  on  we  come  to 
minute  descriptions  of  the  person  and  sufferings 
and  reign  of  the  Messiah.  What  but  the  power  of 
Christ  in  the  earth  has  ever  answered  to  the  words  of 
tlie  second  Psalm  ?  In  the  twenty-second  Psalm  you 
read  :  "  They  part  my  garments  among  them,  and 
cast  lots  upon  my  vesture."  And  then  again,  in  the 
accounts  of  our  Lord's  crucifixion  you  read  that  the 
soldiers  divided  his  garments  among  them  by  lot. 
Is  this  man's  book,  dear  friend  ?  No,  it  is  God's.  In 
the  hundred  and  tenth  Psalm  you  find  David  saying  : 
"  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  sit  thou  on  my 
right  hand  until  I  make  thy  foes  thy  footstool." 
These  words  could  not  possibly  be  true  of  any 
human  ruler,  but  they  are  fulfilled  in  Jesus  Christ, 
who  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  majesty 
on  high,  —  principalities  and  powers  being  subject 
unto  him.  Seven  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
Isaiah  wrote  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  his  prophecy. 
What  he  then  foretold  has  never   come  true  but 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  PROPHECIES.  91 

once,  and  itlius  been  all  fulfilled  in  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  He  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men  ;  he 
was  a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief. 
The  Lord  did  lay  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all,  and 
he  was  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and 
poured  out  his  soul  unto  death.  Verily,  these  were 
the  true  sayings  of  God,  which  he  took  and  gave 
unto  his  servant,  whom  he  sent  to  speak  of  things 
which  should  so  long  after  come  to  pass. 

But  perhaps  you  say  that  the  Jewish  nation,  to 
whom  these  prophecies  came,  regard  them  as  yet 
unfulfilled.  They  do  so  regard  them  ;  and  in  this 
there  is  nothing  against  our  argument,  but  only  the 
fulfilment  of  another  ancient  prophecy.  Christ 
came  as  foretold,  but  the  Jews  did  not  see  him,  for 
there  was  a  veil  on  their  heart.  They  fulfilled  the 
darkest  of  the  prophecies  concerning  themselves  ; 
nay,  they  made  good  what  was  foretold  of  Christ 
himself,  by  rejecting  and  mocking  and  crucifying 
him.  For  this  blindness  and  hard-heartedness 
God  scattered  them,  as  we  now  see,  among  the 
nations, — according  to  what  he  said  unto  them 
of  old,  by  his  servants, the  prophets. 

In  the  sixty-second  chapter  of  Isaiah  we  read  : 
"  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the 
weak ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted :  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and 
the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound." 


92  J^^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

And  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Luke  we  read  that 
Christ,  near  tlie  beginning  of  his  ministry,  quoted 
these  words  to  the  people  of  Nazareth  in  the  syna- 
gogue, on  the  Sabbath,  and  said:  "This  day  is 
this  Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears."  The  pro- 
phet Joel,  writing  nearly  a  thousand  years  before 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  said  :  "  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass  that  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon  all  flesh  ; 
and  your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy ; 
your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams  ;  your  young 
men  shall  see  visions."  We  pass  on  down  the 
stream  of  time  ;  and  after  our  Lord's  ascension  at 
Jerusalem,  where  the  multitudes  are  astonished  to 
hear  the  apostles  speak  with  tongues,  we  find  Peter 
quoting  the  ancient  prophecy,  and  saying  :  "  This 
is  that  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel." 
On  through  apostolic  history,  through  the  labors  of 
St.  Paul  we  go,  and  at  almost  every  step,  in  the 
giving  of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles  ;  in  the  trials, 
persecution,  and  martyrdom  of  the  first  Christians, 
we  find  some  ancient  prophecy  coming  true.  We 
read  history  and  prophecy  side  by  side,  and  the 
more  we  read  the  more  we  wonder,  and  the  more 
we  wonder  the  more  does  our  sound  and  unbiased 
reason  point  us  heavenward,  saying  unto  us,  "  Be- 
hold your  God  ! " 

In  his  history  of  the  literature  of  Europe,  Henry 
Hallam,  speaking  of  the  fiict  that  the  Bible  was  the 
first  book  printed  after  the  invention  of  printing, 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  PROPHECIES.  93 

says:  "We  see  in  imagination  this  venerable  and 
splendid  volume  leading  the  crowded  myriads  of 
its  followers,  and  imploring,  as  it  were,  a  blessing 
on  the  new  art,  by  dedicating  its  first  fruits  to  the 
service  of  heaven."  Yes,  my  dear  friend ;  and  as 
that  mighty  book,  still  leading  on  all  other  books, 
draws  near  to  us  to-day,  we  see  around  it,  and  all 
over  and  through  it,  a  brightness  which  is  not  of 
this  world  ;  and  in  the  eager  words  of  the  Psalm 
we  say  :  "  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates,  and  be 
ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors,  and  the  King 
of  Glory  shall  come  in." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WHAT   THE   BIBLE   HAS   DONE. 

I  SPOKE,  in  the  last  chapter,  of  some  of  the 
prophecies  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  marvellous 
way  in  which  they  have  been  fulfilled.  In  this 
chapter  I  wish  to  allude  to  the  history  of  the  Bible 
in  the  world,  — to  what  it  has  done  and  is  still  doing 
among  men,  —  which  is  of  so  wonderful  a  character 
as  to  exalt  it  far  above  any  or  all  other  books. 

Egypt  is  a  country  in  which  it  rarely  rains. 
Yet  the  Nile  is  ever  there,  with  its  annual  floods, 
making  the  land  like  a  garden  ;  nor  is  the  mystery 
solved  till  its  sources,  the  great  lakes  lying  near 
the  equator,  are  taken  into  the  account.  So  the 
Bible  has  flowed  through  history,  a  beneficent  and 
fertilizing  stream,  and  we  can  explain  it  only  as 
we  come  to  its  sources,  which  are  under  the  throne 
of  God. 

No  doubt  there  were  other  Hebrew  books  in 
ancient  times.  Some  of  them  are  mentioned  in 
our  Bible.  Some  of  them,  the  Apocryphal  books, 
are  often  seen  in  Bibles,  put  there  by  order  of  one 
of  the  later  councils  of  the  Romish  Church,  though 
without  warrant  either  from  the  New  Testament 
94 


WHAT   THE  BIBLE  HAS  DONE.  95 

or  the  Old.  Their  inferiority  to  the  more  gener- 
ally accepted  canon  shows  them  to  be  wliolly  out 
of  place. 

There  were  in  the  times  of  the  apostles,  or  soon 
after,  many  writings  on  the  subjects  of  which  they 
treated.  Some  of  those  writings,  pretended 
gospels  and  epistles,  are  still  preserved  as  curi- 
osities. But  they  have  no  influence,  no  power ; 
they  would  have  been  forgotten  long  ago  but  for 
their  connection  with  the  Bible.  The  question 
arises,  Why  has  that  mass  of  ancient  writings  so 
generally  perished,  while  the  Bible  not  only  sur- 
vives them  all,  but  to-day  has  more  freshness  and 
power  than  it  ever  before  had?  The  writers  of 
the  Bible  were  not  so  superior  to  all  about  them, 
in  genius  and  culture,  as  to  account  for  this  vast 
difference.  Most  of  them  were  wholly  plain  and 
unlettered  men.  Yet  the  writings  of  these  men 
still  lead  the  best  thought  of  the  world.  You  can 
explain  their  survival,  and  their  wondrous  energy, 
all  the  time  increasing,  in  no  other  way  so  well  as 
by  admitting  that  God  is  with  them,  and  speaks 
through  them  as  through  no  other  writings.  Grant 
that  they  are  his  revelation,  and  you  know  why 
they  still  live  and  move  the  Avorld. 

This  final  resort  to  God  to  account  for  the  con- 
tinuance and  power  of  the  Bible,  is  made  more 
necessary  when  we  look  at  the  Hebrew  nation  as 
compared  with  those  about  it.     Except  for  brief 


96  ^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

periods,  chiefly  in  the  times  of  Joshua  and  David, 
it  was  not  a  conquering  nation.  It  was  in  subjec- 
tion to  the  mighty  kingdoms  near  it  during  most 
of  the  immense  period  along  through  which  the 
Bible  was  written.  Its  whole  territory  was  in 
itself  an  insignificant  patch  of  country.  What 
were  its  cities,  its  learning,  its  arts,  its  achiev- 
ments,  and  glory, to  those  of  Egyjit  and  Assyria? 
If  the  Bilile  were  a  human  book  we  should  expect 
its  authorship  to  be  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  or  Per- 
sian. But  it  comes  from  the  small  and  oft-ravaged 
Palestine.  Here  is  a  mystery  which  we  can  solve 
in  but  one  way.  If  the  Bible  were  merely  a  human 
book  it  ouffht  to  come  from  the  2:reat  centres  of 
learning  and  renown.  That  it  comes  from  Pales- 
tine is  a  witness  to  its  divine  authorship  ;  for  God 
chooses  the  weak  things  to  confound  the  mighty, 
and  the  foolish  things  to  confound  the  wise. 

If  we  look  farther  out  on  these  countries  whose 
early  literature  has  survived,  —  such  countries  as 
India,  Greece,  Italy, — we  find  our  argument  grow- 
ing stronger  and  stronger.  Take  the  great  classics. 
Homer,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Thucydides,  Plutarch, 
Virgil,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Tacitus.  How  much  more 
influence  than  the  writers  of  the  Bible  they  should 
to-day  have  if  all  were  alike  as  to  inspiration.  In 
the  common  use  of  the  word,  some  of  the  classic 
writers  were  more  inspired  than  the  Biblical. 
They  had  greater  natural  genius,  could  think  more 


WFTAT  THE   BIBLE   HAS   DONE.  97 

profoundly  and  connectedh",  could  put  their 
thouo-lits  into  more  elegant  forms  of  words.  Yet 
what  is  the  influence  of  them  all  to-day,  compared 
with  that  of  the  Bible  alone  ?  How  many  of  them 
would  continue  to  ])e  read  but  for  the  Bible  ?  The 
Bible  has  been  printed  in  all  known  languages  of 
the  world, — they  in  how  few  !  Copies  of  the  Bible 
are  sown  broadcast  by  the  million  ;  they  are  lim- 
ited to  a  few  choice  libraries.  And  though  the 
Bible  is  the  most  popular  of  books,  it  is  more 
studied  than  any  other  by  the  intellectual  leaders 
of  our  day.  Is  there  any  way  but  one  in  which 
you  can  account  for  this  difference?  (xod  is  in 
the  book  w^hich  unlettered  men  of  a  downtrodden 
race  wrote.  Nothing  short  of  this  could  make  it 
outlive  the  literature  of  Egypt,  of  Nineveh.  It  is 
a  revelation  of  God,  and  therefore  it  to-da\'  sways 
the  world  while  the  books  of  the  proud  Greek  or 
Roman  writers  are  comparatively  powerless. 

Another  fact  in  regard  to  the  history  of  the 
Bible,  which  points  to  its  divine  authorship,  is  the 
vast  mass  of  literature  to  which  it  has  given  rise. 
Not  a  little  of  this  literature  is  in  the  form  of 
attacks  upon  the  Bible.  But  what  other  book 
have  unbelievers  ever  thought  it  worth  their  while 
so  to  assail  ?  Almost  all  human  books  are  challenged 
and  criticised  more  or  less  wdien  they  first  come 
forth  from  the  press  ;  but  how  soon  the  mind  of 
the  world  concerning  them  is  made  up,  and  they 


98  NOT  OF  3IAN,  HUT  OF  GOD. 

either  take  their  place  among  standard  Avorks  or 
are  forgotten !  Not  so  the  Bible.  Its  enemies 
have  fouffht  against  it  thousands  of  years,  nor  are 
they  yet  agreed  to  let  it  alone.  It  is  as  formidable 
an  object  of  attack  as  ever.  It  comes  forth  fresher 
and  stronger  out  of  every  conflict.  No  other  book, 
not  all  other  books  put  together,  have  provoked 
so  much  criticism,  —  have  died  under  the  blows  of 
the  assailants  after  a  little,  or  have  ceased  to  pro- 
voke assaults.  How  do  you  account  for  this 
difference?  Can  you  account  for  it  save  by  ad- 
mitting that  the  Bible  has  a  divine  life,  which 
cannot  be  destroyed? 

On  the  other  hand,  look  at  the  books  which  have 
been  written  in  defense  of  the  Bil)le,  or  to  expound 
and  illustrate  its  teachings.  What  mighty  libraries 
there  are  of  them  !  They  began  to  multiply  soon 
after  the  apostles  died.  Think  of  all  the  works 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  fathers,  — how  they  mar- 
shalled their  huge  volumes  at  Alexandria,  at 
Constantinople,  at  Rome  !  The  commentaries  on 
the  Bible,  in  all  languages,  and  upon  its  smallest 
texts  and  words,  would,  if  gathered  together,  be 
a  countless  host.  On  each  Lord's  Day,  and  on  all 
days  in  many  places,  what  an  array  of  preachers 
are  speaking  to  the  people  out  of  the  Bible ;  and 
this  has  been  so  for  more  than  fifteen  centuries ; 
and  to  all  this  we  must  add  the  studies  of  the 
Sunday  School  and  home,  the  religious  magazine, 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE   HA!<   DONE.  Vif 

newspaper,  and  review.  And  what  are  these  to  the 
great  and  ancient  universities,  with  their  thousands 
of  Bible  scholars  all  the  time  at  work  upon  it,  or 
on  something  nearly  related  to  it.  Go  into  the 
greatest  libraries  of  Germany,  of  France,  of  Eng- 
land, of  this  country.  Look  at  one  small  volume, 
perhaps  lying  on  a  table  in  the  midst.  Consider 
that  that  one  small  book  has  called  into  being  a 
large  part  of  the  vast  collections  around  it.  Think 
of  this,  and  rememl)er  that  all  other  books  together 
have  not  had  such  creative  power,  and  then  say 
Avhose  work  the  Bil)le  is.  It  cannot  be  man's  •>  it 
must  be  God's  own  book.  Look  also  at  the  mass 
of  literature  which  does  not  pretend  to  be  Biblical 
or  even  religious,  and  see  how  that  even,  if  it  is 
good  for  anything,  honors  the  Bible,  and  is  full 
of  thoughts  and  expressions  borrowed  from  it. 
This  book,  which  some  would  shut  up,  wholly 
banish  from  the  schools  in  which  our  children  are 
taught,  was  familiar  to  Shakespeare,  as  his  works 
often  and  most  strikingly  show.  It  helped  the 
thought  and  style  of  Milton,  and  gave  him  the 
theme  of  the  grandest  modern  epic.  Sir  Waltei' 
Scott,  on  his  deathbed  said,  "There  is  but  one 
book,  —  the  Bible."  Eead  not  only  Jeremy  Taylor 
and  John  Bunyan,  but  Macaulay,  Carlyle,  the 
greatest  orators,  poets,  philosophers,  wherever  the 
English  language  has  been  spoken  since  the  Bible 
was  translated  into  our  tongue,  and  see  what  the 


100  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

Bible  has  clone  for  them.  They  are  <rlad  to  speak 
their  greatest  thoughts,  and  point  their  sublimest 
sentences  with  its  words.  What  other  hook  has 
had  such  power  over  men  in  the  higher  depart- 
ments of  thinking  and  of  letters?  Certainly  no 
other.  In  this  particular  the  Bible  stands  abso- 
lutely alone.  And  how  do  you  explain  the  wonder? 
You  cannot  explain  it  but  by  admitting  that  the 
author  of  the  Bible  is  God.  It  alone  reveals  him 
to  men.  His  life  is  in  it,  quickening  into  life  all 
his  children  to  whom  it  comes. 

Not  only  does  the  life  of  the  Bible  throb  in  all 
good  literature,  but  think  what  it  has  done  for  the 
noblest  of  the  arts.  Oh,  that  the  ancient  sculp- 
tors had  known  the  Bible  !  What  a  dignity  it 
would  have  given  to  their  genius,  cramped  as  they 
were  by  their  pagan  mythology.  Painting  bloomed 
out  as  never  before  Avhen  the  Bible  was  brought 
into  the  world  of  art.  To  it  we  owe  the  Madonnas 
of  Raphael,  ending  with  that  most  wonderful  of 
pictures,  the  Sistine  Madonna.  His  cartoons  are 
due  to  the  miracles  of  Christ.  The  Transtio-uration 
kindled  his  genius  as  nothing  in  common  history 
ever  did.  And  he  is  but  one  of  the  many  whom 
the  Bible  has  thus  awaked.  There  is  hardly  a 
scene  or  event  of  marked  character,  from  Genesis 
to  Revelation,  but  some  artist  has  wrought  it  into 
living  and  glowing  forms.  Go  through  the  great 
galleries,    where    the   works    of  the    masters    are 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  DONE.  101 

treasured,  and  see  vvhtit  spiice  is  given  to  the  Bible. 
It  has  been  the  inspiration,  the  guide,  the  foster- 
mother  of  art.  In  this  no  other  book,  nor  all 
others,  can  compare  with  it.  The  magic  pencil 
drops  from  the  hand  of  art,  and  her  works  grow 
tame  and  cheap,  when  she  turns  from  the  Bible. 
Think  of  this,  dear  friends,  and  let  it  help  you 
measure  the  gulf  which  separates  the  Bible  from 
all  human  books.  As  of  painting,  so  of  music. 
Her  noblest  periods  have  been  those  in  which  she 
has  drawn  her  subjects  from  the  Bible  ;  her  pro- 
ductions beo^in  to  stow  weak  and  frivolous  as  soon 
as  she  turns  to  secular  themes.  We  could  not 
have  had  the  immortal  works  of  Handel,  Mozart, 
Beethoven,  Mendelssohn,  but  for  the  Bible. 
Xow,  is  there  not  something  wonderful  in  this? 
Think  how  many  books  have  been  written  by 
famous  geniuses  ;  yet  the  highest  glory  of  music, 
of  painting,  of  human  letters,  is  due  not  to  these, 
but  to  one  small  book,  largely  the  work  of  humble 
men,  which  is  older  than  the  oldest  of  them,  and 
which  lives  on  while  they  perish,  —  all  the  time 
growing  more  fresh  and  powerful.  Say  that  the 
Bible  is  God's  book,  and  you  account  for  this 
marvellous  fact.  The  history  of  the  Bible  as  thus 
far  traced,  and  in  contrast  with  other  books,  re- 
quires that  we  should  look  on  it  as  a  divine 
revelation. 

But  we  have  only  begun  this  historic  survey, 


102  ^OT   OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  a 01). 

dear  friend.  Consider  the  blessed  transforming 
power  which  the  Bible  has  everywhere  sho\vn  in 
human  society.  It  went  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  hands  and 
lives  and  on  the  lips  of  the  first  Christians.  You 
know  how  mighty  it  was  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds.  The  effects  it  produced  everywhere 
filled  heathen  minds  with  wonder.  The  polished 
Pliny,  writing  to  his  master  Trajan,  from  Bithynia, 
said  that  the  Christians  "  met  on  a  stated  day  be- 
fore it  was  light,  and  addressed  a  form  of  prayer 
to  Christ  as  to  a  divinity,  binding  themselves  by  a 
solemn  oath ;  not  for  any  wicked  purpose,  but 
never  to  commit  any  fraud,  theft,  or  adultery, 
never  to  falsify  their  word,  nor  deny  a  trust  when 
they  should  be  called  on  to  deliver  it."  This 
movement,  which  found  its  source  in  the  Bible, 
soon  became  dangerous  to  the  schemes  of  the 
emperors,  and  bloody  and  fiery  persecution  fol- 
lowed. But  those  believers  in  the  words  of  Christ 
and  the  apostles  could  not  be  conquered.  Their 
blood  was  a  mighty  seed.  The  empire  itself  be- 
came Christian  a  few  generations  after.  Thus  did 
the  Bible  once  lift  almost  the  whole  world  into  a 
nobler  and  purer  life.  And  how  soon  those  old 
races  sank  back  to  their  former  level  when  the 
Bible  was  taken  away  !  "We  see  them  to-day,  in 
many  respects  worse  than  when  Christ  came,  be- 
cause their  anibitious  priesthood  and  rulers  took 


WHAT  THE   BIBLE  HAS   BONE.  103 

from  them  the  key  of  knowledge  ;  and  still,  again, 
they  are  beginning  to  rise  to  purity  where  that 
key,  the  Bible,  in  the  hands  and  hearts  of  mission- 
aries, has  been  restored  to  them.  Look  on  the 
results  as  seen  now  and  in  the  past,  and  remem- 
bering that  a  tree  is. known  by  its  fruits,  ask  your- 
self if  this  is  not  a  tree  which  God  has  planted  and 
made  strong  for  himself?  Most  certainly  it  is,  or 
there  would  be  something  else  somewhere  in  the 
world  worthy  to  be  compared  with  it,  as  now 
there  is  not. 

Think  of  the  barbarous  condition  of  Northern 
Europe  in  the  time  of  Julius  Cffisar.  When  he  in- 
vaded England  that  country  was  overrun  with 
tribes  of  hostile  and  warring  savages.  The  religion 
of  the  Druids,  with  its  horrid  and  bloody  rites, 
held  sway.  When  the  Bible  came,  some  centuries 
later,  there  still  were  heathen  temples  where 
Westminster  Abbey  and  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  now 
stand.  There,  and  on  the  continent  hard  by,  the 
people  lived  in  caves,  in  wretched  huts  of  mud  and 
sticks,  but  scantily  clad  m  the  skins  of  beasts, 
their  implements  few  and  rude.  Such  was  the 
state  of  things  wliich  met  the  first  Christian  mis- 
sionaries to  those  wilds.  But  they  began  to  tell, 
beneath  spreading  trees  or  wherever  any  would 
listen  to  them,  the  story  of  that  divine  coming  and 
speaking  to  men  which  the  Bible  records.  Their 
teaching,    and  that  of  their  successors,  began  to 


104  ^OT  OF  3IAN,  BUI'  OF  GOD. 

awake,  in  the  souls  about  them,  a  divine  life  which 
had  been  hitherto  dead.  New  ideas  beo;an  to 
dawn  upon  those  souls,  new  hopes  and  longings 
were  kindled  in  them.  What  the  law,  the  power, 
the  grandeur  of  Kome  could  not  do  the  Bible  did. 
It  came  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  no  selfish  ob- 
ject to  gain,  in  whom  it  had  awakened  a  love 
which  could  make  them  die  for  the  good  of  other 
men,  and  innnediately  the  transformation  began. 
The  process  has  l>een  at  times  slow,  tortuous,  now 
doubling  and  now  redoubling  its  course,  where  the 
spirit  and  teaching  of  the  Bible  have  been  laid 
aside  or  overborne  ;  but  it  has,  on  the  whole,  gone 
forward  and  upward,  reaching  higher  and  higher 
terraces,  till  now  we  behold,  in  those  once  de- 
graded countries,  some  of  the  brightest  proofs  of 
the  goodness  and  nobleness  and  greatness  of  which 
human  nature  is  capable.  Go  to  England  to-day, 
and  ask  her  what  has  made  her  what  she  is,  and 
she  will  point  you  to  the  Bible :  t/iat,  entering 
into  her  society,  her  schools,  her  literature,  her 
institutions,  her  government  and  laws,  has  raised 
her  from  her  savage  state  to  what  she  now  is. 
And  she  will  not  only  point  you  to  the  Bible,  but 
she  will  say,  with  a  mighty  emphasis,  that  no 
human  book  could  have  done  so  much  for  her, 
and  that  the  Bible  has  been  able  to  do  it,  only  be- 
cause it  is  the  message  of  God  to  her,  as  it  is  to 
all  men. 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  DONE.  105 

I  wish  I  could  here  bring  another  witness,  dear 
friend,  from  the  history  of  the  native  races  in  this 
land.  But  1  cannot,  save  in  a  very  limited  way. 
Even  the  Pilgrims  a*  Pl^^mouth  were  not  whoJly  dis- 
interested ;  certainly  the  Puritans  of  Boston  were 
not.  They  came  less  as  missionaries  than  to  make 
a  place  for  themselves.  I  do  not  forget  Eliot's  In- 
dian Bible,  and  his  work  at  Natick,  which  bore  such 
good  fruit.  There  are  good  men  and  women  among 
us  now,  toiling  and  praying  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Indians  ;  nor  have  they  toiled  in  vain,  as  the  story  of 
some  Christian  tribes  may  show.  But  it  is  still  our 
shame  that  the  most  self-sacrificing  missionaries  the 
Indians  of  our  country  have  ever  had  were  the 
French  Jesuits,  who  went  into  the  wilderness  by  way 
X)f  Quebec  and  Montreal,  along  the  lakes,  and  down 
the  Mississippi.  However  unwise  or  fanatical  they 
were,  this  devotion  has  left  a  mark  which  English 
rule  has  not  yet  worn  out.  The  Bible  has  not 
]"aised  up  the  Indians  in  our  borders  for  the 
sufficient  reason  that  we  have  not,  from  the  first 
and  all  along,  given  it  to  them  out  of  a  pure  and 
unselfish  love.  Our  treatment  of  them  has  made 
it  a  ghastly  mockery  when  reached  out  to  them  by 
our  hands.  It  looks  very  much  as  though  we  had 
lost  our  last  chance  of  savins:  them .  We  cannot  give 
them  the  Bible  ;  they  must  receive  it  from  nations 
who  have  it  in  their  heart.  Let  it  come  to  them 
from  hands  unstained  with  their  own  blood, — from 


106  ^OT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

true  and  loving  hands,  whose  love  and  truth  have 
been  clearly  proved,  —  and  then  we  shall  see  if  the 
Bible  does  not  show  itself  to  be,  among  our  Indian 
tribes,  what  it  has  elsewhere  been,  the  wisdom  of 
God  and  the  power  of  God. 

Why  should  it  not  do  for  them  what  it  did  for 
the  Sandwich  Islanders,  who  savagely  murdered 
the  first  visitors  to  their  shores  ?  Roving  and  fight- 
ing cannibals  less  than  a  century  ago,  to-day  a 
Christian  nation  !  And  the  Bible  tells  you  why. 
That  kindled  and  fanned  the  spark  which  has  been 
to  them  the  light  of  life.  Can  anything  be  too 
hard  for  a  book  which  Christianized  the  island  of 
Madagascar  so  recently?  Take  that  island  as  it 
was  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  as  it  is 
now  ;  look  on  that  picture  and  then  on  this,  while 
you  hear  them  say  that  the  Bible  has  changed  them 
from  a  multitude  of  savages  to  a  Christian  people, 
and  ask  yourself  whence  came  this  wonderful  book  ? 
Can  it  be  any  one's,  save  His  with  whom  nothing  is 
impossible  ?  As  the  Bible  went  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands  and  to  Madagascar,  finding  them  dark  and 
cruel  places  and  filling  them  with  light  and  love,  so 
it  has  gone  and  is  still  going  to  other  islands  of  the 
deep  and  to  the  oldest  civilizations  of  the  East.  I 
cannot  here  tell  you  the  story  of  the  Fiji  Islands, 
whose  very  name  has  been  with  us  a  synonym  of 
all  that  is  wild,  treacherous,  and  brutal.  Such  was 
their  character  fifty  years  ago.     They  hunted  and 


WHAT   THE  BIBLE  HAS   DONE.  107 

ate  one  another  as  we  do  our  forest  game.  There 
was  no  baseness,  no  fury  or  lust  of  wild  beasts  of 
which  they  were  not  guilty,  and  proud  to  make  it 
their  boast.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  how  utterly 
all  that  has  been  changed.  The  Bible  went  to 
those  devourers  of  one  another  early  in  this  cen- 
tury, carried  to  them  by  those  devoted  men, 
Williams  and  Hunt ;  and  to-day  guide-books  of 
the  Fiji  Islands,  for  the  use  of  persons  travelling  in 
search  of  knowledge  or  pleasure,  are  published. 
You  look  on  that  picture  and  then  on  this,  tracing 
the  wondrous  change  to  the  Bible,  and  you  say  : 
"  This  is  not  man's  doing  ;  what  hath  God  wrought 
with  his  own  all-conquering  book  ! " 

In  1848  Dr.  John  Geddie  went  to  the  New  Heb- 
rides ;  and  he  died  in  1872,  only  twenty-four 
years  later.  Yet  in  the  church  where  he  preached 
there  has  just  been  placed  a  tablet,  with  this  in- 
scription :  — 

"  When  he  came  here, 
There  were  no  Christians ; 
When  he  went  away, 
There  were  no  heathens." 

I  should  be  glad  to  give  more  of  these  proofs, 
drawn  from  the  history  of  the  Bible  in  the  world, 
that  God  is  with  it,  and  in  it ;  but  I  must  keep 
within  my  limit. 

I  should  do  wrong  not  to  allude  to  the  story  of 
the  mutineers  of  the  ship  "Bounty,"  who  settled  on 


108  ^OT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

Pitcairn's  Island  in  the  Southwest  Pacific.  This 
ship  had  been  at  Tahiti  Island  for  several  months, 
gathering  slips  of  the  bread-fruit  tree,  which  were 
to  be  transplanted  in  the  West  Indies.  The 
vicious  and  lazy  sailors,  found  such  delights  at 
Tahiti  that  they  did  not  Avish  to  quit  it ;  went  on 
board  in  a  sullen  mood,  and  soon  after,  on  some 
provocation,  mutinied.  All  but  the  mutineers 
were  put  out  of  the  ship  into  an  open  boat,  with  a 
little  food  and  water,  and  then  the  ship  sailed  back 
to  Tahiti.  But  being  afraid  to  stay  there,  where 
vessels  often  came,  they  again  went  on  board, 
with  several  of  the  islanders,  and  sailed  away  in 
search  of  a  home.  The  home  which  they  finally 
chose  was  Pitcairn's  Island.  They  ran  the  ship 
ashore,  took  out  of  it  what  they  could  carry  away, 
and  then  burnt  it  to  the  water.  On  this  island, 
where  nature  had  food  and  a  delicious  climate  for 
them,  they  hid  themselves  in  a  high,  beautiful 
valley,  and  there  quarrelled  and  fought  till  they 
were  all  dead  but  one.  This  one  found  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  colony  of  less  than  twenty  persons, 
most  of  them  women  and  children.  Of  course, 
fighting  then  ceased.  With  quiet  came  reflection, 
and  with  this  the  sense  of  sin.  The  one  surviving 
mutineer  bethought  him  of  a  Bible  which  had  been 
saved  from  the  ship.  He  found  it,  and  read  it, 
and  began  to  pray  over  it,  till  his  murderous  soul 
turned  in  penitence  to  God.     The  poor  creatures 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  DONE.  109 

about  him  saw  the  wondrous  change.  He  had 
become  another  man ;  and  they  were  full  of  joy 
at  the  change,  for  now  their  lives  were  safe.  He 
began  morning  and  evening  prayers,  and  had 
public  worship  on  Lord's  Days,  all  of  which  the 
whole  colony  attended  as  one  family.  The  chil- 
dren grew  up,  families .  were  founded,  all  vice 
came  to  an  end  ;  the  people  were  in  sympathy 
with  their  leader,  and  like  him  took  their  rules  of 
life  from  the  Bible.  The  result  was  marvellous. 
Years  after,  when  the  colony  had  grown  to  nearly 
a  hundred  persons,  and  had  become  known, 
visitors  were  astonished  at  what  they  saw.  It 
seemed  to  them  the  very  paradise  of  God,  —  so 
truthful,  so  honest,  so  peaceful,  so  industrious, 
so  gentle  and  pure  and  holy  were  all  its  members. 
One  bad  man  from  near  Boston,  visiting  them  and 
seeking  to  do  them  harm,  was  warned  of  his 
wickedness  by  them,  and  turned  into  a  devout 
Christian  through  their  efforts.  The  small  island 
becoming  too  strait  for  them  they  were  persuaded 
to  go  back  to  Tahiti,  which  the  older  of  them  still 
remembered,  where  was  plenty  of  room.  But 
the  vices  and  sins  which  they  there  saw  so  shocked 
them  that  they  refused  to  stay,  and  went  again 
to  Pitcairn,  saying  they  would  rather  their  bodies 
should  starve  than  their  souls  be  lost ;  that  their 
colony  should  become  extinct  than  that  it  should 
fall  back  into  the  corruption  it  had  once  escaped. 


110  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOB. 

I  need  not  speak  of  their  story  farther.  "V\Tiat 
that  one  Bible  did,  as  now  shown,  is  enough  for 
my  purpose.  All  merely  human  books  could  not 
have  done  what  it  accomplished.  The  story  shows 
us  that  none  are  so  base  but  the  Bible  can  lift 
them  to  purity  and  peace,  where  they  let  it  come 
into  their  hearts.  It  can  change  darkness  to  light, 
chaos  to  order,  hatred  to  love,  sin  to  holiness 
before  God.  When  you  bring  me  another  book 
which  has  done  what  the  Pitcairn  Bible  did,  and 
which  IS  wholly  the  work  of  man,  I  may  admit 
that  the  Bible  can  be  ranked  with  other  books ; 
but  until  you  do  this,  I  am  forced  to  insist  that  the 
Bible  came  down  to  men  from  God,  or  it  could 
not  so  lift  them  up  to  God.  Its  history,  the  story 
of  its  triumphs  for  four  thousand  years,  the  won- 
derful and  blessed  transformations  it  has  wrought 
in  all  the  earth,  are  the  darkest  riddle  of  the  ages 
if  it  be  but  human.  But  admit  that  it  is  from 
God,  and  all  is  plain. 

As  the  thunder  spoke  in  the  sky  above  our 
Lord's  head,  saying,  "  This  is  the  Son  of  God,"  so 
a  great  voice  out  of  all  the  past,  and  from  the  ends 
of  the  world,  to-day  speaks,  saying,  "This  is  that 
revelation  of  God,  full  of  the  renewing  life  of  God, 
which  was  to  come  into  the  world.  We  cannot 
doubt  it  any  more  than  Andrew  doubted  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ  when  he  ran  to  tell  his  own 
brother  Simon,  or  Philip  when  he  found  Nathaniel 


WHAT   THE   BIBLE   HAS   DONE.  Ill 

« 
under  the   fig-tree.      As  the  woman  of  Samaria 

believed  that  Jesus  Avas  the  Messiah,   when  she 

heard  him  tell  her  all  that  she  ever  did,  so  we, 

looking  at  the  Bible,  seeing  it  coming  down  the 

ages,  leading  captivity  captive,  walking  over  the 

graves  of  its  assailants,  say,  "This  is  that  true 

word  of  God,  shining  as  a  light  in  dark  places,  to 

which  we  do   well   to  take    heed."     If  you    are 

ao-ainst  the  Bible,  and  its  divine  Author,  and  the 

Saviour  who  comes  in  it,  I  pray  you,  "Kiss  the 

Son,  lest  he  be  angry  with  you,  and  you  perish 

in  the  way  with  him  when  his  wrath  is  kintlled  but 

a  little."     But  if  you  have  committed  your  soul 

in  well-doing  to  him,  whose  kingdom  the  Bible  is 

setting  up  in  all  the  earth,  then  work  and  wait  in 

joyous  hope ;  for  the  end  of  all  things,  which  is  at 

hand,  is  but  the  ending  of  every  form  of  violence 

and  ungodliness  among  men,  and  the  beginning 

of  a  glory  which  shall  bring  heaven  to  earth  and 

raise  earth  to  heaven. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

WHAT   THE   BIBLE   SAYS   OF   MAN. 

If  I  were  a  lawyer  in  a  civil  court,  pleading  for 
the  proposition  that  our  Bible  is  God's  message  to 
men,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  might  here  be  content 
to  let  the  jury  take  the  case.  I  have  shown  that 
the  Bil^le  has  been  doubted  no  more  seriously  than 
many  other  truths  which  are  axiomatic,  self-evident, 
necessary.  Our  idea  of  God  is  such  that  we  know 
he  must  desire  to  reveal  himself  to  us,  in  order 
that  he  may  save  us  from  our  miseries  and  sins. 
This  he  can  do,  the  fa])ric  of  natural  law  not  shut- 
ting him  away  from  us,  inasmuch  as  he  made 
nature,  and  made  it  in  view  of  what  he  would 
desire  to  do  for  us.  Any  revelation  from  him  is, 
therefore,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  miraculous  ; 
and  a  book  which  had  in  it  no  record  of  miracles 
could  not  be  God's  word.  But  a  history  of 
miracles  must  necessarily  be  beyond  the  reach  of 
created  minds  :  hence  the  need  of  special  inspira- 
•tion ;  that  is  to  say,  God  must  himself  guide  and 
control  those  who  write  out  his  revelations  for  the 
use  of  others.  And  then,  not  only  are  these  ex- 
pectations and  conditions  met  in  our  Bible,  but  it 
claims  to  be  a  divine  revelation,  and  secular  history 

112 


WHAT  THE  BTBLE  SAYS   OF  3TAN.  113 

and  antiquities  confirm  this  claim.  Besides  all  this, 
the  fulfilment  of  prophecies  Avhich  we  find  in  the 
Bible  proves  it  to  be  divine,  and  it  has  had  a  career 
in  the  world  which  we  can  account  for  only  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  God's  book. 

But  these  evidences,  convincing  as  they  might 
be  in  a  court  of  law,  are  for  the  most  part  merely 
external,  —  what  various  persons  and  things  and 
ideas  witness  concernino;  the  Bible  :  we  have  not  as 
yet  looked  at  the  drift  and  meaning  of  the  book 
itself.  We  have  seen  the  outside  of  the  building, 
have  looked  into  its  vestibule,  have  heard  echoes  of 
the  music  and  worship  inside  ;  and  if  these  show  that 
it  can  1)6  none  other  than  the  house  of  God,  what 
must  our  impressions  be  as  we  pass  in  through  the 
portals  ;  as  we  stand  under  its  high  arches  ;  as  we 
tread  its  solemn  aisles  ?  All  true  preaching  is  of 
the  very  essence  of  these  internal  evidences ;  you 
will  therefore  only  expect  me  to  hint  at  some  of 
the  more  obvious  of  them,  falling  farther  short  of 
what  might  ])e  said  in  this  part  of  my  subject  than 
in  what  has  gone  before.  I  will  limit  myself,  in 
the  chapters  to  come,  to  what  the  Bible  has  to  say 
of  man,  of  God,  of  the  moral  order  of  the  w^orld, 
and  of  deliverance  from  evil  and  sin. 

If  we  begin  with  man,  and  inquire  what  the 
Bible  has  to  say  about  him,  we  find  it  confirming, 
and  widening,  and  deepening  our  natural  know- 
ledge, in  a  way  that  no  human  book  has  ever  done. 


114  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOU. 

What  is  man?  Is  he  body  or  spirit?  Does  our 
whole  humanity  come  out  of  the  flesh ;  or  does  it 
simply  use  the  flesh  for  a  little  while?  Is  our 
higher  nature  from  beneath,  or  is  it  from  above  and 
made  to  be  the  lower  nature's  lord?  The  answer 
to  this  question  which  we  bring  with  us  into  life, 
which  is  embedded  among  the  very  roots  of  our  be- 
ing, cannot  be  mistaken.  Our  own  souls  tell  us 
that  in  the  things  which  go  to  make  us  men  or  wo- 
men we  are  not  related  to  the  clod.  Not  only  are 
we  above  the  worm  and  all  beasts  and  creeping 
things,  but  ^ve  belong  to  a  wholly  distinct  order  of 
life.  You  may  trace  resemblances  of  physical 
structure  and  of  natural  instinct  between  us  and 
the  lower  animals,  but  there  is  that  in  us  which 
there  is  not  in  them.  The  appearance  of  anything 
like  mind  or  soul  in  them  does  not  lift  them  to  our 
plane.  We  have  personality  as  they  have  not. 
That  in  us  which  we  mean  when  we  use  the  pro- 
noun /  is  not  in  them.  We  are  spiritual,  not  ma- 
terial. We  make  use  of  matter,  but  are  not  of  it. 
No  speculations  of  natural  science  will  ever  beat 
this  faith  out  of  us.  It  may  be  confused,  blinded, 
unable  to  answer  the  questions  of  the  materialist, 
but  it  cannot  be  destroyed. 

•  That  we  came  down  from  the  Father  of  lights, 
and  are  essentially  spiritual,  is  to  us  more  sure  than 
anything  else.  It  is  the  foundation  of  all  our 
other  knowledge.     Make  us  doubt  this,  and   we 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE   SAYS   OF  MAN.  115 

must  refuse  to  believe  anything.  Such  is  the  soul's 
own  testimony  that  it  is  itself  a  spark  out  of  the 
infinite  and  divine  flame.  This  is  what  the  human 
consciousness  says,  not  only  where  the  Bible  has 
gone,  but  where  it  has  not  gone.  Men  must  be 
sunk  into  the  very  grave  by  their  ignorance,  their 
vice,  their  bondage  to  the  lower  nature,  who  do  not 
insist  on  this.  Raise  them  up,  quicken  them, 
kindle  their  inner  nature  into  life,  and  that  they 
are  essentiall}^  spiritual  and  from  above,  is  one  of 
the  first  truths  which  will  leap  forth  and  shine  and 
cry  out  within  them.  Any  book  which  does  not 
recognize  this  peculiarity  in  them,  or  which  tries  to 
explain  it  away,  their  first  impulse  is  to  cast  from 
them  with  horror.  It  is  the  serpent  invading  their 
Eden,  whispering  its  temptations  into  their  ear, 
planting  its  snare  by  the  very  tree  of  life.  It  may 
be  more  subtle  than  any  other  beast  of  the  field, 
but  souls  which  are  awake  to  their  worth  will  say 
to  it,  "  We  may  not  eat  what  you  offer  us  ;  "  nor 
will  they  be  beguiled  from  that  answer  till  made 
false  to  themselves. 

But  our  Bible  brings  us  no  such  temptation  ;  it 
plants  no  such  snare.  It  does  not  come  to  the 
lower  nature  in  us,  l)ut  to  the  higher, — to  what  is 
best,  and  not  to  what  is  worst.  It  tells  us  that 
our  first  and  most  awful  impression  of  man,  of 
ourselves,  is  wholly  right.  We  are  spirits  ;  we 
are  from  above.      What  is  graven  on  the  soul, 


110  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

what  all  men  naturally  believe,  what  flames  out  in 
our  consciousness  more,  the  more  we  are  awake, 
that  the  Bible  confirms  ;  that  the  Bible  clears  up, 
Avidens,  deepens,  makes  more  solemn  and  impres- 
sive to  us  than  it  was  before?  As  soon  as  you 
look  into  this  book  you  find  it  declaring  that  man 
is  a  spirit,  and  that  he  is  of  divine  origin.  It  re- 
cognizes his  frailty,  his  bondage  to  death ;  it  calls 
him  a  worm,  the  grass  of  the  field,  the  flower  that 
is  cut  ofi*.  But  all  this  is  said  with  reference  to  the 
fleshly  nature,  which  is  no  part  of  the  real  and  im- 
perishable man.  When  w^e  come  to  the  /,  the 
myself,  which  our  inmost  thought  reveals  to  us, 
the  voice  of  the  best-trained  consciousness  is  not 
so  loud  and  clear  as  that  of  the  Bible.  On  its 
first  page  we  find  these  words  :  "  And  God  said, 
Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness  ; 
and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the 
sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the 
cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every 
creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth.  So 
God  created  man  in  his  own  image  ;  in  the  image 
of  God  created  he  him,  male  and  female  created 
he  them."  This  account  of  the  creation  of  man  in 
the  first  of  Genesis  is  repeated  in  the  second  chap- 
ter in  such  a  way  as  more  especially  to  emphasize 
his  spiritual  nature.  There  we  read;  "And  the 
Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground, 
and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life. 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS    OF  MAN.         117 

and  man  became  a  living  soul."  God  imparted  of 
his  own  life,  that  is,  to  man.  He  was  made  to 
live  in  a*  wholly  diflerent  way  from  the  lower 
orders  of  creatures.  God  did  not  breathe  his 
breath  into  them,  but  the  waters  and  the  earth  at 
his  word  brouoht  them  forth.  Other  creatures  were 
made  by  the  operation  of  nature  ;  but  man  was  an 
inbreathed  spirit, — a  living  soul,  a  spark  out  of 
God's  own  life,  —  so  that  he  could  be  truly  said  to 
be  made  in  the  image  of  God.  Thus  is  our  neces- 
sary faith  in  the  original  dignity  and  inherent 
worth  of  m.an  wholly  confirmed. 

Not  only  is  our  natural  self-knowledge  con- 
firmed, ])ut  its  sphere  is  widened,  and  the  source 
of  our  consciousness  of  a  spiritual  nature  is  re- 
vealed. It  is  because  we  are  God's  children  that 
we  have  in  us  the  ideas  of  beauty,  of  order,  of 
righteousness,  and  are  blessed  only  as  we  find 
those  ideas  realized.  Our  wretchedness  in  a  world 
of  disorder,  and  while  conscious  of  our  own  faults, 
is  a  witness  to  the  spirit  in  us  which  is  God's 
child.  The  Bible  accounts  for  this  higher  nature 
of  man,  and  reveals  to  us  its  riches  of  capacity  and 
hope,  as  no  merely  human  book  has  ever  done. 
The  mystery  is  cleared  up,  and  we  shout  Amen, 
while  our  souls  leap  for  joy  when  the  bright  sun 
of  God's  word  rises  upon  us.  There  is  healing  in 
its  wings.  Now  we  know%  as  never  before,  what 
is  the  source  of  all  that  yearning,  that  wondering, 


118  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

that  high  imagining,  that  deep  sense  of  want,  that 
restlessness,  that  anguish  and  crying  out  for  some- 
thing not  yet  ours,  which  malie  up  our  inmost 
and  unspoken  life.  The  Bible  floods  those  depths 
in  us  with  its  light,  makes  the  Sphinx  within  us 
tell  her  own  riddle,  so  that  we  tremble  with  glad- 
ness when  it  says  that  God  kindled  our  spirit  from 
his  own. 

And  this  sun  which  rises  so  brightly  upon  us  at 
tirst  does  not  afterwards  go  down.  The  farther 
we  look  through  the  pages  of  the  book,  the  more 
clearly  does  it  shine  out.  The  words  in  Job 
which  say,  "  There  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Almighty  giveth  them  understand- 
ing," re-echo  those  spoken  in  the  beginning. 
David,  looking  on  our  poor  mortal  frame,  wonders 
at  the  blessed  truth  :  "  What  is  man  that  thou  art 
mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of  man  that  thou 
visitest  him  ?  for  thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels,  and  hast  crowned  him  with  glory 
md  honor,"  What  is  thus  spoken  the  prophets 
>peak  with  clearer  voice,  and  what  was  a  mystery 
n  the  Old  Testament  is  unfolded  in  the  New. 
The  wondrous  human  spirit,  with  all  its  high  ideas 
and  possibilities,  comes  to  perfection  in  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  He,  the  perfect  man,  knew  what  the 
soul  is,  as  we,  with  our  dim  vision,  do  not  know, 
and  he  it  was  who  said,  "  What  shall  it  protit  a 
man,  though  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his 


]VnAT  THE  BIBLE   SAYS    OF  MAN.  Ill) 

own  soul?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange 
for  his  soul?"  It  is  therefore  certain,  dear  friend, 
so  far  as  our  present  topic  is  concerned,  that  the 
Bible  can  never  be  displaced  by  any  other  book. 
It  has  exhausted  all  the  possibilities  in  the  case. 
We  vaguely  dream  of  the  high  origin  of  the  spirits 
in  us ;  the  Bible  takes  up  those  dreams,  translates 
them  into  glorious  truth,  and  raises  them  to  a 
point  where  they  blend  with  the  life  of  God. 

In  what  the  Bible  says  of  man's  immortality,  as 
in  what  it  says  of  his  inherent  dignity,  it  confirms 
our  natural  knowledge  :  it  not  only  confirms  it, 
but  increases  it,  and  puts  it  in  a  clear  and  proper 
light.  We  should  believe  in  our  immortality  if 
we  had  no  Bible.  We  bring  the  idea  of  immor- 
tality with  us  into  life.  It  is  not  first  taught  us. 
We  have  it  before  we  have  any  teachers.  It  is 
eno^raven  on  the  tablets  of  our  hearts.  We  can- 
not  help  believing  that  we  are  immortal,  however 
much  we  try.  Do  you  ask  me,  then,  why  all 
children  do  not  think  of  themselves  as  immortal 
till  told  that  they  are  ?  why  books  are  written  to 
disprove  the  immortality  of  the  soul?  why  many 
savage  tribes  seem  to  have  no  idea  of  any  life  but 
the  present?  These  facts  can  be  accounted  for 
easily  enough,  without  denying  that  the  idea  of 
immortality  is  in  all  men. 

I  think  children  are  conscious  of  it  before  they 
speak  it.     The  idea  is  in  them,  or  it  could  not  so 


120  ^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

easily  be  taught  them.  Their  souls  leap  forth  to 
embrace  it  as  soon  as  they  hear  any  one  give  it  a 
voice.  They  have  many  other  ideas,  of  which 
they  are,  from  the  first,  vaguely  conscious,  but 
which  they  have  not  learned  to  speak.  There  is 
in  them  the  idea  of  beauty,  of  truth,  of  duty,  of 
the  right  as  always  right.  These  ideas,  and  that 
of  immortality  also,  they  put  into  conceptions,  and 
speak  forth  as  soon  as  you  give  them  the  proper 
words.  That  they  are  immortal  is  a  faith  enshrined 
within  them,  —  a  precious  inheritance  which  God 
gives  them  with  their  being  itself. 

But  books  have  been  written  against  immor- 
tality. Yes,  and  so  have  they  been  written  against 
everything  else  which  is  true,  or  which  man  natu- 
rally believes.  Man  is  a  curious  compound,  a 
strange  contradiction.  He  has  a  will  of  his  own, 
by  which  he  may  turn  himself  any  way,  as  their 
rudders  turn  the  ships.  Not  only  this,  but  out 
of  his  lower  nature  there  comes  up  a  tendency  to 
err,  a  passion  for  darkness,  a  wanton  love  of  vain 
speculations.  As  in  the  sea  there  is  often  an 
undercurrent  running  just  the  opposite  way  of  the 
surface-current ;  as  in  the  air  the  wind  near  the 
earth  may  blow  one  way,  and  just  the  other  way 
in  its  upper  depths,  so  there  may  be  in  man  the 
instinctive  faith  of  immortality  together  with  the 
flat  denial  of  it  in  theory  and  logic.  The  man 
who  says   that   he   does    not   believe   that  he   is 


WHAT  THE   BIBLE   SAYS    OF  MAN.  121 

immortal  does  not  know  himself,  or  has  forgotten 
himself.  He  did  thus  believe  before  ever  he 
doubted,  and  the  remains  of  the  belief  are  in  him 
still.  He  was  led  away  by  some  fondness  for 
debate,  or  by  the  desire  to  formulate  in  words  of 
his  own  what  God  has  graven  on  his  heart.  His  own 
arguments  and  speculations  gathered  like  mould  on 
the  divine  handwriting.  He  went  sounding  on  a 
dim  and  perilous  way  till  darkness  filled  him.  He 
allowed  himself  to  take  a  false  position,  and  then 
his  pride  of  opinion  led  him  to  hold  it  with  all  his 
streno;th.  His  looic  proved  more  than  a  match 
for  his  faith,  though  his  faith  was  true  and  his 
logic  fiilse.  Thus  it  is  that  you  may  get  all  your 
books,  lectures,  or  other  denials  of  immortality, 
and  the  traces  of  the  God-given  faith  still  be  in 
the  soul.  It  is  there,  in  the  soul  of  the  most 
sceptical,  however  rubbed  away  or  covered  up. 
That  faith  is  a  part  of  our  manhood ;  and  if  Ave 
were  wholly  without  it,  we  should  not  be  men,  but 
brutes. 

The  conviction  of  their  immortality  is  only 
effaced  or  hidden  in  savage  tribes.  It  is  never 
wholly  gone,  as  careful  searching  has  shown. 
The  savage  may  stare  and  shake  his  head  when 
you  tell  him  that  the  soul  never  dies.  Yet  the 
thought  rivets  his  attention,  his  eye  kindles  with  it 
as  it  is  made  clear  to  him,  and  at  length  he  begins 
to  see  that  in  his  very  superstitions   there  is  an 


122  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF   aOD. 

unconscious  admission  of  tlie  idea.  He  is  con- 
scious of  it  as  soon  as  he  is  clearly  conscious  of 
any  ideas  at  all.  Nothing  can  be  surer,  then,  than 
that  we  all  have  the  idea  of  immortality,  and  that 
we  cannot  get  away  from  it,  however  hard  we  try. 
Probably  no  man  ever  tried  harder  to  do  this  than 
the  poet  Byron,  at  times.  Yet  we  find  even  him 
using  these  words  :  — 

"I  feel  my  immortality  o'ersweep 
AH  pains,  all  tears,  all  time,  all  fears  ;  and  peal, 
Like  the  eternal  thunders  of  the  deep, 
Into  my  ears  this  truth  —  Thou  liv'st  forever." 

And  now  see  how  the  Bible  here  speaks,  how 
in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  things,  as  we 
expect  God  to  speak  on  this  subject,  confirming 
our  faith  in  man's  immortality,  and  bringing  the 
truth  out  into  a  clear  light,  as  no  man  could  do. 
The  Bible  nowhere  tries  to  prove  our  immortality 
as  something  wholly  new  to  us.  It  assumes  the 
great  truth,  takes  it  for  granted,  rather,  as  why 
should  God  not  do,  who  knows  that  he  has  written 
it  on  our  hearts  ?  Some  have  tried  to  show  that 
the  earlier  Hebrews  knew  nothing  of  this  doctrine  ; 
that  they  brought  it  back  with  them  from  Babylon. 
But  this  is  certainly  a  mistake,  for  Christ  quoted 
God's  words  to  the  patriarchs  as  showing  that 
they  believed  the  doctrine.  The  translation  of 
Enoch  and  Elijah,  aye,  even  the  necromancy  and 
witchcraft  into  which  God's  people  fell,  imply  a 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE   SAYS    OF  MAN.  123 

life  beyond  this  life  in  the  flesh,  in  which  those 
early  men  believed.  If  less  is  said  toward  the 
beginning  of  the  Old  Testament  than  toward  the 
end,  and  less  in  the  Old  than  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, there  is  o-ood  reason  for  this.  The  doctrine 
was  taught  in  Egypt,  where  Israel  had  Ijeen,  and 
was  connected  witli  man}^  idolatrous  rites.  It  was 
held  by  the  corrupt  nations  round  about  Israel. 
It  tended  to  degenerate  into  a  gross  spiritism,  as 
in  the  case  of  Saul  and  the  witch. 

Now,  God  would  save  his  people  from  these 
abuses  of  the  doctrine, — from  the  Egyptian  and 
other  corruptions,  to  which  they  were  so  prone. 
He  therefore  withdrew  their  minds  somewhat  to 
the  worship  and  duties  of  this  life ;  he  did  not 
ffive  them  the  doctrine  till  he  had  trained  them  to 
know  how  to  use  it,  just  as  he  did  not  send  his 
Son  till  after  long  ages  of  preparation.  But  the 
idea  was  more  or  less  spoken  by  inspired  writers 
all  along.  In  the  later  prophets,  when  the  Jews 
had  been  thoroughly  weaned  from  idolatry,  it 
came  out  more  clearly  ;  in  the  words  of  our  Lord 
and  of  his  apostles,  it  burst  in  all  its  fulness  upon 
the  world.  No  grandest  symphony  of  human 
voices,  borne  up  on  sublimest  organ  strains,  ever 
stirred  the  soul  like  those  words  spoken  at  the 
grave  of  Lazarus,  like  those  in  which  St.  Paul 
paints  the  heavenly  hfe  of  those  whose  bodies  are 
sleeping  in  the  grave. 


124  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

The  Bible,  then,  utters  forth,  as  no  merely  human 
books  ever  have  or  can,  that  idea  of  immortal  life 
which  is  in  us  all.  It  takes  up  the  subject  so 
wisely,  treats  it  so  masterfully,  speaks  so  pro- 
foundly and  clearly,  and  so  carries  our  thoughts 
out  to  all  we  need  or  wish  to  know,  that  our 
hearts  compel  us  to  see  in  it  the  true  God  and 
eternal  life.  No  man  ever  thus  wrote  on  the 
subject  of  immortality.  We  take  up  the  book 
which  has  been  proved  to  be  the  word  of  God, 
and,  finding  these  words  in  it,  we  say,  "It  is  none 
other  than  his  ;  these  are  indeed  the  true  sayings 
of  God." 

On  one  other  point  pertaining  to  man,  the  Bible 
has  much  to  say.  Not  only  is  he  immortal,  and  a 
spirit  made  in  God's  image,  but  he  has  thrown 
himself  out  of  harmony  with  the  moral  universe, 
to  which  he  belongs.  He  is  at  war  with  the  moral 
order  of  the  world.  Here  again  is  something 
which  we  should  know  of  if  we  had  no  Bibles, — 
something  which  the  Bible  does  not  announce  as  a 
new  fact,  something  which  we  naturally  know,  and 
which  the  Bible  only  emphasizes  and  brings  clearly 
out  into  the  light.  The  Bible  is  from  God,  and, 
viewing  men  in  their  relation  to  God,  it  calls  the 
evil  in  them  their  sin,  though  w^e  may  call  it  by  many 
other  names.  We  say  that  man  is  naturally  out  of 
place  ;  he  is  not  in  the  element  for  which  he  was 
made  ;  he  is  a  planet  wandering  from  his  proper 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS   OF  MAN.  125 

orl)it.  We  are  all  the  time  conscious  of  a  power 
to  do  vastly  better  than  we  do.  We  do  not  follow 
that  which  is  best  in  us,  but  go  against  it.  Where 
there  are  exceptions  to  this  fact,  they  are  due  to 
some  influence  which  has  come  into  men  and 
chanofed  their  course.  Looking  on  the  mass  of 
men,  or  taking  them  as  they  naturally  are,  we  are 
constrained  to  say  that  they  do  not  live  in  a 
manner  which  is  worthy  of  them.  The  earthly, 
and  selfish,  and  frivolous  lives  which  they  live  are 
as  much  beneath  them  as  it  is  beneath  the  eagle  to 
leave  his  proper  home  in  the  air,  and  burrow  like 
a  fox. 

Human  society  is  organized  on  the  presumption 
that  men  are  inclined  to  disobey  their  higher 
nature.  Safeguards,  restraints,  and  punishments 
are  put  all  about  us,  that  we  may  be  protected 
from  one  another,  that  the  evil  bent  in  us  may  be 
held  in  check.  We  are  glad  of  these  warnings  and 
helps,  —  glad  of  anything  which  keeps  us  from 
sliding  away  downward,  or  which  forces  us  up  to- 
ward the  life  for  which  God  made  us.  Such  is 
the  verdict  which  we  pass  on  human  life  as  a 
whole,  where  that  life  is  unchecked  and  un- 
chano;ed. 

Now,  see  how  exactly  the  Bible  confirms  and  ex- 
plains all  this.  It  does  not  paint  man  any  better 
than  we  know  him  to  be.  It  paints  him  as  he  is. 
It  is  clearly  the  work  of  one  who  knows  what  is  in 


126  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

man.  It  reveals  all  the  depths  of  human  sinful- 
ness, as  only  he  who  made  man  could  possibly  do. 
It  tells  us  how  men  have  reached  their  present  low 
plane  :  they  are  fallen  beings.  That  is  to  say, 
they  have  ceased  to  have  fellowship  with  God,  for 
which  his  image  in  them  fitted  them.  They  have 
not  lived  with  him  as  his  children,  but  have  gone 
away,  and  become  estranged.  They  have  fallen 
under  the  power  of  the  fleshly  nature,  and  are  liv- 
ing in  a  way  wholly  unworthy  of  their  spiritual 
nature.  This,  briefly  told,  is  what  the  Bible  says 
of  the  fall  of  man.  You  see  how  exactly  it  agrees 
with  the  fact  of  man's  essential  nobleness,  and  with 
the  sad  state  of  things  which  we  see  around  us  in 
the  world.  Human  wickedness  is  accounted  for 
and  drawn  forth  into  the  light  as  nowhere  else. 
We  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  Bible  and  we  say, 
"  These  are  not  the  words  of  men,  but  of  one  who 
knows  us  altogether."  When  Ave  read  that  "  our 
heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and  desperately 
wicked,"  we  not  only  confess  the  truth  of  the 
charge,  but  feel  that  he  Avho  made  the  heart  has 
searched  it  with  an  eye  that  sees  all  things.  David 
asks  God  to  cleanse  him  from  faults  of  which  he  is 
unconscious ;  and  the  way  of  a  man  is  to  be 
"  cleansed  "  by  taking  heed  to  God's  word.  The 
book  shows  who  its  author  is  by  the  wholly  divine 
way  in  which  it  speaks  of  the  sinfulness  of  men. 
They  are  just  such  words  as  we  should  expect  the 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS   OF  MAN.  127 

heart-searching  God  to  utter  where  we  read  of 
men  :  "  They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way  ;  they  are 
together  become  unprofitable ;  there  is  none  that 
doeth  good ;  no,  not  one."  We  should  not  dare 
bring  this  charge  against  our  fellows,  and  only  as 
we  rise  into  full  sympathy  with  God  do  we  see  how 
true  it  is.  It  can  be  nothing  less  than  the  word  of 
God  in  which  we  read  :  "  All  souls  are  mine,  the 
souls  of  the  righteous  and  of  the  wicked  ;  the  soul 
which  sinneth,  it  shall  die."  None  but  God  could 
say  this,  which  we  see  to  be  profoundly  true. 
The  souls  of  the  wicked  are  his,  for  he  is  the 
Father  of  spirits  ;  and  they  die  when  they  sin,  since 
sin  separates  them  from  him  who  is  the  source  of 
their  life. 

Thus  it  is,  my  dear  friend,  that  the  Bible  reveals 
God  to  us  in  the  wonderful  revelation  of  ourselves 
to  us  which  it  makes.  We  see  none  other  than 
God  in  what  it  says  of  our  high  origin ;  in  what  it 
says  of  our  great  destiny ;  in  what  it  says  of  our 
l:>itter  estrangement  from  God  —  to  all  of  which  I 
have  but  briefly  referred. 

The  woman  of  Samaria  believed  that  Jesus  was 
the  Christ  because  he  told  her  all  that  she  ever  did. 
He  told  her  how  wicked  she  had  been,  how  un- 
worthy of  herself  she  had  lived ;  and  she  bowed 
under  his  true  words  in  penitence  and  faith.  May 
God  make  her  the  example  which  you  shall  even 
now  follow  !     The  Bible  tells  you,  as  God  alone 


128  NOT   OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

could,  whence  you  came,  whither  you  are  bound, 
and  what  you  now  are.  You  have  the  sense  of 
weariness,  and  the  hunger  and  thirst,  which  tor- 
mented her.  No  water  drawn  from  any  earthly 
well,  though  it  were  that  to  which  Jacob  led  his 
flocks,  can  quench  the  gnawing  lire  in  your  soul. 
But  the  water  which  God  gives,  and  which  springs 
up  into  everlasting  life,  comes  to  you  in  the  Bible. 
That  the  Bible  brings  you  this  water,  it  proves  by 
the  way  in  which  it  lays  open  the  depths  and 
windings  of  your  heart.  Would  you  drink  of  that 
of  which  if  one  drink  he  shall  not  thirst  again? 
Then  do  as  the  woman  did.  As  she  saw  in  Christ 
her  master  and  saviour,  so,  dear  friend,  ma}^  you 
see  in  the  book  which  speaks  to  you  of  Christ 
the  true  God  and  eternal  life.  As  the  men  of  the 
city  came  out  at  the  saving  of  the  woman,  so  let  all 
men  come  to  this  book,  and  see  how  it  reveals 
them  to  themselves,  and  they  will  l)-^  ready  to  say  : 
"  These  are  the  true  sayings  of  God,  in  which  he 
tells  us  how  sadly  we  have  wandered  into  sin, 
^vhile  he  lovingly  waits  to  hear  our  repentances, 
and  forgive  and  bless." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WHAT   THE   BIBLE   SAYS   OF   GOD. 

The  internal  evidences  for  the  Bible,  like  the 
external,  are  inexhaustible.  I  showed  a  little  in 
the  last  chapter  how  the  Bible  speaks  concernino; 
man.  It  speaks  in  such  a  way  as  we  should 
expect  God  to,  — confirming  our  previous  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature,  and  opening  in  it  new 
depths  which  we  at  once  recognize  as  a  part  of 
our  real  life.  We  are  more  or  less  conscious  of 
high  spiritual  powers  ;  Avith  that  consciousness  the 
Bible  everywhere  agrees,  and  accounts  for  it  as 
human  reasoning  never  could,  by  carrying  it  up  to 
God,  who  is  the  Father  of  our  spirits.  We  have 
also  an  instinctive  feeling  that  we  are  immortal ; 
this  feeling  the  Bible  everywhere  assumes  as  true, 
and  it  brings  clearly  out  into  the  light  the  life  and 
immortality  of  which  we  are  faintly  conscious. 
We  read  what  it  says  of  the  future  and  the  unseen, 
and,  with  awed  and  gladdened  hearts,  we  say, 
"  Never  man  spake  thus :  this  is  God's  voice." 
And  not  only  are  we  spiritual  and  immortal,  but 
we  are  sinful.  It  is  a  truth  of  our  observation 
and  of  our  experience  that  men  are  not  in  harmony 

129 


130  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

with  the  law  of  their  being.  We  tind  them  at 
w^ar  with  that  laAV,  out  of  their  orbit,  not  naturally 
rising  towards  God,  but  struggling  aAvay  from  him 
into  death.  This  much  we  know  without  the 
Bible ;  but  the  Bible  confirms  it,  takes  it  for 
granted,  restates  it  Avith  a  thoroughness  and  power 
of  which  man  is  not  capable.  The  longer  we  listen 
the  deeper  does  our  conviction  become  that  God 
is  speaking  to  us. 

I  pass  now  from  what  the  Bible  says  of  man  to 
what  it  says  concerning  God.  The  great  theme 
of  the  Scriptures  is  God  himself;  they  are  a  reve- 
lation of  him,  if  they  are  anything.  His  presence 
fills  them  as  the  sunlight  fills  the  planetary  spaces. 
This  fact  itself  falls  in  with  the  idea  that  the  Bible 
is  from  God.  God  is  its  theme,  as  he  is  the  theme 
of  no  other  book.  Everywhere  it  brings  him 
before  us  as  the  Being  of  beings  whom  we  need 
to  meet  face  to  face.  It  confirms  our  previous 
knowledge  of  God,  and  adds  to  it  in  a  way  so 
above  all  human  power  that  we  naturall}^  say,  while 
reading  it,  "These  are  the  words  of  God." 

The  fact  that  the  Bible  does  not  try  to  prove 
the  existence  of  God,  but  takes  it  for  granted,  is 
a  proof  of  its  divine  origin.  It  sometimes  alludes 
to  those  who  say  there  is  no  God,  but,  instead  of 
arguing  with  them,  it  calls  them  "fools."  It 
declares  that  all  men  have  knoAvledge  of  God, 
both  reflected  from  the  outer  world  and  written  in 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS   OF  GOD.  131 

their  hearts.  If  any  are  at  all  without  that  knowl- 
edge, this  is  not  because  they  never  had  it,  but 
because  they  have  disliked  to  retain  it  in  their 
thoughts.  Their  foolish  mind  has  been  darkened 
by  turning  away  from  God,  and  worshipping  and 
serving  the  creature.  Thus  does  the  Bible  put 
the  case  of  those  who  deny  that  there  is  a  God. 
It  does  not  argue  with  them  any  more  than  we 
argue  with  a  blind  man  about  colors,  or  with  a 
deaf  man  about  sounds  and  voices.  It  undertakes 
tlie  rather  to  open  their  eyes  that  they  may  see, 
and  to  unstop  their  ears  that  they  may  hear. 

Now  this  is  a  most  remarkable  thina:  in  the 
Bible.  This  makes  it  unlike  the  vast  mass  of 
boolis  which  speak  to  us  about  God.  These  are 
continually  trying  to  prove  that  there  is  a  God, 
whereas  he  is  the  trutli  of  truths,  whose  existence 
is  above  all  proof.  He  comes  with  us  into  the 
world,  and  he  never  leaves  nor  forsakes  us.  This 
is  every  year  getting  to  be  more  and  more  the 
common  faith  of  mankind.  Men  would  never  have 
tried  to  prove  that  there  is  a  God,  if  they  had  not 
been  first  blinded  by  reason  of  sin.  I  would  do 
full  justice  to  our  painstaking  thinkers  who  have 
constructed  now  this  argument,  and  now  that,  for 
the  existence  of  God.  Their  labors  have  ffrown 
into  many  a  portly  volume,  which  does  much  credit 
to  their  acuteness,  their  research,  their  depth  and 
breadth  of  thought.     The  preacher  often  has  occa- 


132  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

sion  to  use  their  facts  and  reasonings  when  he 
would  confirm  the  faith  of  his  hearers  or  his  own 
faith.  Then,  again,  if  we  would  bring  men  to  God, 
we  must  meet  them  on  their  own  ground.  When- 
ever they  have  sunk  down  through  a  process  of 
doubting  till  they  have  reached  the  low  level  of 
atheism,  we  must  address  to  them  such  arofuments 
as  they  will  listen  to,  if  we  would  see  them  in- 
tellectually convinced.  But  I  think  it  better  that 
we  should  not  be  too  anxious  about  this  intellectual 
conviction ;  it  will  come  fast  enough,  if  the  heart 
be  first  reached. 

Persons  are  apt  to  be  repelled  farther  and 
farther  into  atheism  by  arguments  addressed  only 
to  the  head.  Young  men,  who  never  had  thought 
of  doubting  the  divine  existence,  have  come  out 
of  the  theological  schools  confirmed  atheists.  Oh, 
that  the}^  might  have  been  kept  in  a  warm,  religious 
atmosphere ;  that  they  might  have  been  under 
instructors  who  taught  them  to  commune  with 
God,  rather  than  lean  to  their  own  understanding ! 
Then,  the  spiritual  life  in  them  being  thoroughly 
alive,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  them  to 
doubt.  What  is  needed  to  save  the  young  from 
skepticism  is  not  argument,  but  a  larger  inbreath- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Let  there  be  not  merely 
a  religious  excitement  now  and  then,  but  a  genuine 
revival  of  religion  in  all  our  schools  every  year, 
and  the  crop  of  doubters  would  be  very  light.     A 


WHAT   THE  BIBLE  SAYS   OF  GOD.         I33 

great  many  atheists  have  1)een  made  by  our  trying 
to  prove  that  there  is  a  God.  If  we  would  just 
assume  that  God  is,  and  that  all  men  naturally 
believe  in  his  existence  ;  and  if  we  would  meet 
men  at  this  point,  and  clear  up  and  strengthen 
the  faith  already  in  them,  there  would  be  but 
little  need  of  other  argument. 

And  just  here  it  is  that  the  Bible  meets  all  men. 
With  a  wisdom  which  is  more  than  human,  which 
is  supernatural  and  divine,  it  brings  out  into  the 
clear  light  of  their  consciousness  that  belief  in 
God  which  men  ah-eady  have.  The  grand  object 
in  calling  Abraham  was  not  to  teach  that  there  is  a 
God,  but  to  have  a  people  in  the  earth  who  should 
have  correct  views  of  God.  Men  had  deo-raded 
God  in  their  conceptions  of  him,  and  had  fallen 
into  idolatry.  The  noblest  and  truest  thing  in 
them,  — their  yearning  for  him,  —  being  blinded, 
was  misleading  them  into  the  worship  of  the 
powers  of  nature,  and  of  beasts  and  creeping- 
things.  The  Bible,  everywhere  assuming  that 
men  have  a  faith  in  God  of  some  sort,  comes  to 
them  just  as  they  are,  and  tries  to  make  them  see 
what  the  true  God  is.  It  would  rescue  them  from 
idolatry  by  revealing  him  to  them.  The  object 
all  along  is  not  to  show  them  some  new  thing,  but 
to  save  them  from  what  is  fiilse  by  showing  them 
what  is  true.  There  is  in  every  sjMrit  of  man  a 
yearning  for  God,  just  as  in  the  body  there  is  an 


134  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

appetite  for  food.  Men  must  eat  something.  If 
they  do  not  have  food  which  is  wholesome,  their 
hunger  will  drive  them  to  that  which  does  them 
harm. 

Now,  the  Bible  recognizes  the  universal  longing 
for  God ;  does  not  come  to  create  it,  but  to  bring 
it  wholesome  food ;  to  guide  it  in  safe  paths. 
There  is  a  faith  in  the  wildest  idolater  which 
it  gloriously  confirms,  which  it  holds  to  be  above 
all  price.  It  meets  that  dim,  misguided  faith, 
bending  to  it  in  wondrous  love,  waiting  upon  it 
with  more  than  a  mother's  patience,  speaking  to  it 
in  words  to  which  it  can  listen,  lifting  it  up, 
breathing  life  into  it,  leading  it  out  into  the  true 
light,  showing  to  it  the  true  God  for  whom  it  was 
feeling  in  the  dark,  and  teaching  it  to  look  on  him 
and  say,  ''  Abba,  Father."  This  is  what  the 
Bible  does,  all  it  does,  to  cure  men  of  their  doubts 
concerning  God.  It  tells  us  that  we  already  be- 
lieve in  him,  as  we  know  that  we  do.  It  stoops 
to  this  blinded  faith,  and  tenderly  lifts  it  up  out  of 
darkness  and  sin.  We  are  thankful  for  its 
gracious  treatment  of  us.  There  is  that  in  us 
which  leaps  forth  with  joy  at  its  coming.  It  speaks 
the  very  thoughts  concerning  God  which  had  all 
our  lives  lain  within  us,  but  for  which  we  had 
found  no  voice.  That  voice  it  is.  It  is  our  John 
the  Baptist,  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness  of  our 
own  thoughts,  which  all  that  is  good  in  us  comes 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS   OF  GOD.  135 

out  to  hear.  As  we  read  on,  and  enter  into  the 
meaning  of  what  we  read,  our  hearts  say,  "  Why 
had  no  one  ever  thouajht  of  these  thino;s  before  ?  " 

We  have  believed  in  this  God  from  our  birth, 
but  could  not  speak  our  faith.  No  man  has  been 
able  to  speak  it  for  us.  The  words  of  men  have 
made  us  almost  doubt  that  there  is  a  God.  But 
here  is  a  book  Avhich,  unlike  all  other  books, 
speaks  of  God  just  as  our  hearts  would  speak  if 
they  had  a  voice.  It  also  tells  us  many  wondrous 
and  oflorious  thino;s  concerning  him  which  we  could 
not  find  out,  but  which,  now  that  we  see  them,  we 
rejoice  in  with  a  joy  unspeakable.  If  there  were 
no  external  proofs,  this  internal  witness  would  be 
enough  for  us.  We  read  these  glowing  pages, 
and  the  God  whom  we  have  yearned  for  is  no 
longer  an  unknown  God.  We  begin  to  see  him 
as  he  is.  He  draws  our  hungry  spirits  away  from 
all  false  gods.  He  is  revealed  to  us,  and  we  feel 
all  through  our  souls  that  the  words  which  we  are 
reading  are  his  words.  As  no  one  can  know  what 
is  in  us  save  as  we  ourselves  tell,  so  this  book, 
which  tells  us  what  is  in  God,  must  be  his  own 
words.  Who  knows  the  things  of  a  man  save  his 
own  spirit?  and  so  that  which  knows  and  tells  the 
things  of  God,  telling  them  in  so  wonderful  a 
manner,  can  be  none  other  than  the  spirit  of 
God. 

Passing  on,  then,  from  the  truth  that  God  is, 


136  ^^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

to  these  things  of  God  which  the  Bible  tells  as 
only  God  could,  we  notice  among  them  the  father- 
hood of  God,  on  which  the  Bible  so  insists.  This 
truth  is  correlative  to  one  which  we  considered 
in  the  last  chapter.  In  what  the  Bible  says  of 
men  we  saw  that  they  are  the  children  of  God ; 
and  now,  in  what  it  says  of  God,  we  are  made  to 
see  that  he  is  the  Father  of  men.  In  the  gene- 
alogy of  our  Lord,  which  is  given  in  the  third  of 
Luke,  his  parentage  is  traced  to  Enoch,  ''  which 
was  the  son  of  Seth,  which  was  the  son  of  Adam, 
which  was  the  son  of  God."  But  man  became  un- 
conscious of  this  divine  sonship  by  falling  into 
sin ;  it  lay  dead  ^vithin  him  in  the  midst  of  his 
trespasses ;  and,  with  the  sonship,  the  fatherhood 
also  faded  out  of  his  sight.  Man  has  become  an 
orphan  only  by  departing  from  God.  The  great 
Father  still  lives,  nor  does  he  forget  or  cease  to 
love  his  prodigal  child.  It  is  our  knowledge  of 
God's  fatherhood,  not  the  fatherhood  itself,  which 
w^ent  away  from  the  world  when  man  sinned.  It 
only  seemed  to  go  because  the  sonship,  the  power 
of  seeing  it  and  rejoicing  in  it,  w^ent.  The  light 
seems  to  fade  from  the  landscape  as  our  vision 
grows  dim,  yet  it  may  be  as  bright  as  ever. 
When  we  think  the  stars  have  faded  out  of  the 
sky,  that  is  not  because  they  are  no  longer  there, 
but  because  Ave  have  lost  the  power  of  seeing 
them.     The  fatherhood  was  ever  true,  as  it  now 


WHAT  THEBTBLE  SAYS   OF  GOD.  137 

is,  and  ever  will  be,  but  the  sonsliip  proved  false. 
That  turned  its  back  on  God, — desired  not  the 
knowledge  of  his  ways,  lost  his  original  power  of 
seeinof  him.  Yet  man  did  not  lose,  he  could  not 
wholly  lose,  his  instinctive  feeling  after  God.  He 
soon  found,  in  the  far  country,  that  he  needed  a 
Father,  and  wondered  whether  or  not  he  had  a 
Father. 

We  believe  that  God  is  this  divine  Father,  dear 
friend,  before  we  read  the  Bible.  It  is  one  of 
those  necessary  ideas  which  are  a  part  of  the 
original  outfit  of  our  minds.  Our  Bibles  only 
wake  it  up  within  us  as  we  read  them.  The 
fatherhood  of  God,  in  which  we  naturally  believe, 
does  not  mean  mere  indulgence,  an  easy  good 
nature,  forgiveness  without  cause.  One  of  the 
elements  of  a  true  fatherhood  is  justice,  love  of 
order,  the  equal  and  impartial  treatment  of  those 
who  hold  the  relation  of  children.  We  want  to 
feel  that  there  is,  at  the  head  of  the  universe.  One 
who  will  care  for  all  its  interests,  in  whose  hands  it 
is  forever  safe.  He  must  hate  wrong  just  as 
thoroughly  as  he  loves  what  is  right ;  otherwise  he 
cannot  be  the  Father  for  whom  we  are  looking. 
We  must  know  that  he  is  this,  that  he  cares  for 
the  whole,  that  he  will  let  no  great  interest  suffer ; 
then  we  can  come  with  assurance  to  him  when  we 
are  in  trouble,  when  our  hearts  are  pained,  when 
the  sense  of  guilt  is  strong  within  us.      The  Bible 


138  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

must  show  us  such  a  God  as  this,  or  he  is  not  the 
Father  we  want. 

And  what  does  the  Bible  say  to  us  about  God  as 
soon  as  we  open  it?  Are  we  not  amazed  to  find 
how  exactly  it  answers  to  the  ideas  and  longings 
of  our  hearts?  Has  any  man  ever  given,  could 
any  man  ever  give,  an  account  of  God  so  respon- 
sive to  the  demand  within  us  ?  We  read  on  and 
on,  and  are  struck  to  see  how  his  interest  in  us  as 
our  Maker  and  Ruler  comes  out.  The  more  mas- 
culine traits  of  the  fatherhood  first  show  them- 
selves. We  see  that  God  is  impartial,  that  he  will 
put  down  wrong,  tliat  he  reigns  m  justice  and 
truth.  Thus  is  the  basis  of  a  sound  fatherhood 
laid  in  the  earlier  parts  of  the  history.  Yet  from 
the  beo-inninof  the  love  of  God  shines  forth.  The 
Bible  has  more  to  say  of  God's  tenderness  as  we 
get  farther  on  in  it.  The  justice  and  sovereignty 
are  not  forgotten,  they  nowhere  sink  out  of  sight. 
Yet  the  gentleness  and  love  come  out  more  and 
more,  the  farther  we  get  in  the  book,  till  we  come 
to  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  the  father  dwelt,  full  of 
grace  and  truth.  In  a  way  that  is  most  wonder- 
ful, mercy  and  truth  meet  together,  righteousness 
and  peace  kiss  each  other. 

In  due  time  there  is  a  perfect  divine  sonship  on 
earth  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  and  he  it  is  who  teaches 
us  that  we  should  call  God  by  the  tender  name  of 
"  Father."     If  we  tremble  when  we  think  of  the 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE   SAYS   OF  GOB.  139 

wrongs  and  violences  which  fill  the  earth,  the  God 
whom  the  Bible  reveals  to  us  allays  all  our  fears. 
Though  our  hearts  condemn  us  for  our  faults,  yet, 
in  our  own  penitence,  we  have  confidence  towards 
God.  He  is  not  like  an  earthly  father.  He 
changes  not.  The  sonship  failed  in  us,  but  the 
fatherhood  never  fails ;  it  is  without  shadow  of 
turning.  Not  only  in  its  impartial  justice,  but  in 
its  forgiving  tenderness,  it  is  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever, the  same. 

Such  is  a  little  of  what  the  Bible  tells  us 
concerning;  God.  Does  it  not  answer  to  our 
natural  ideas  of  him,  and  to  all  those  wants  which 
we  expect  him  to  supply?  As  the  key  fits  the 
lock,  as  the  child  knows  its  father's  voice,  so  this 
Bible,  wondrously  fitted  to  our  case,  saying  what 
we  expected  God  to  say,  just  what  we  most 
yearned  to  hear  from  him,  can  be  none  other  than 
God's  message  to  men.  If  we  are  weak  and  fear- 
ful and  unknowing,  it  tells  us  that  he  is  infinitely 
stronof  and  calm  and  wise.  He  forgives  the 
guilty,  he  restrains  the  wayward,  he  chastens  the 
imperfect.  When  we  are  in  difiiculty,  he  succors 
us ;  he  cheers  us  when  we  faint ;  when  we  are  in 
sorrow  he  brings  comfort ;  and  when  we  are  dying 
he  says,  "Behold,  I  live." 

I  might  weary  you,  did  I  go  too  far  with  this 
inquiry,  showing  you,  all  through  the  Bible,  how 
the  God  whom  the  Bil)le  reveals  is  just  such  an  one 


140  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

as  we  expect  and  need.  It  speaks  as  divinely  of 
iiim  as  it  does  of  man.  His  presence  tills  it  as  the 
water  does  the  sea,  as  the  sunlight  does  the  sky. 
The  book  lies  open  before  you  like  a  boundless 
expanse  of  rosy  bloom.  You  would  require  ages 
of  time  to  wander  through  it  and  examine  each 
particular  flower.  This  is  what  all  prophets,  all 
singers,  all  apostles,  all  preachers,  all  writers  upon 
the  truths  of  the  Bible,  have  been  doing  for 
thousands  of  years.  They  have  not  yet  got  to  the 
end.  They  never  will  open  all  the  seals.  Only 
the  Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  can  do  that ; 
for  in  its  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and  height, 
the  love  of  God  passeth  knowledge.  It  is  of  God's 
love,  infinitely  tender  and  infinitely  just,  that  the 
Bible  tells  us ;  and  in  eternity,  as  in  time,  we 
shall  sing,  "The  half  was  never  told."  But  how 
that  love  pours  itself  out  in  the  one  sacred  book  ! 
As  much  of  it  as  w^ords  will  contain  is  there.  It 
swells  the  sentences  and  phrases  to  bursting,  as  the 
breath  of  spring  swells  the  buds  throughout  the 
forests.  Even  its  narratives  of  earthly  events, 
and  its  genealogies,  and  catalogues  of  forgotten 
names,  drop  with  fatness,  like  the  pastures  of  the 
wilderness. 

Whatever  else  you  say  of  the  Bible,  you  are 
obliged  to  confess  that  it  is  full  of  God.  It  does 
not  let  you  go  from  his  presence  or  escape  from 
his  spirit.     It  pours  his  blessed  life  around  and 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE   SATS   OF  GOD.  141 

through  you  if  you  have  a  willing  soul,  as  the  sun 
pours  his  splendor  round  the  world.  Read  the 
Bible  as  you  should,  and  you  will  find  your  soul 
swimming  in  God  as  the  fishes  SAvim  in  the  sea  ;  his 
presence  will  waft  you  on  as  the  air  wafts  the 
birds  in  their  flight.  This  is  what  makes  the  Bible 
so  wonderful, — the  book  of  books.  God  is  in  it, 
and  fills  it,  so  that  the  very  style  of  its  composi- 
tion, though  largely  the  work  of  unlearned  men, 
stands  supreme  and  alone.  In  sublimity,  in 
naturalness,  in  beauty  and  simplicity,  in  clearness 
and  grandeur  and  force,  and  the  absence  of  all  pre- 
tence, it  has  never  been  approached,  nor  can  it 
ever  be.  God  is  in  it,  and,  therefore,  all  the 
glory  and  harmony  and  sweetness  of  the  universe, 
yea,  more  than  all,  is  gathered  within  its  lids. 
You  meet  God  at  every  turn  and  step  of  the 
wondrous  pathway,  nor  do  you  ever  weary  of  his 
presence  ;  the  more  you  look,  the  more  do  you 
long  to  see.  For  though  he  is  everywhere  essen- 
tially the  same  God  in  his  love  and  goodness  and 
truth,  yet  he  shows  himself  in  ways  which  are  ever 
new  and  fresh,  which  are  divinely  suited  to  the 
exact  case  you  are  in. 

He  joins  himself  to  you  in  the  very  first  verse 
of  the  book,  and  journeys  on  with  you  all  the 
way,  nor  do  you  once  miss  him  if  your  eyes  are 
open  while  you  walk.  I  bless  God  for  giving  us 
this  book, —  the  book  which  is  so  full  of  him,  which 


142  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT   OF    GOD. 

makes  him  its  mighty  theme,  nor  seems  to  care  for 
aught  else  !  This  is  my  inheritance,  this  is  my 
light,  this  is  my  refreshment  and  rest !  What  care 
I  for  other  portions  while  this  is  mine  ?  I  walk 
on  through  its  heavenly  paths,  everywhere  golden 
with  God's  presence,  and  I  do  not  wonder  that  it 
has  changed,  and  is  still  changing,  the  face  of  the 
world.  It  is  all  clear  to  me  now  ;  no  longer  a  hid- 
den mystery,  but  an  open  secret,  that  the  Bible 
has  turned  so  many  islands  and  continents  to 
Christ ;  for  I  find  that  God  is  in  it,  and  fills  it,  and 
Avalks  with  it  through  the  world.  He  is  there,  — 
the  God  who,  our  yearning  hearts  tell  us,  must 
somewhere  be  revealed.  It  tells  us,  in  a  way 
which  hushes  the  deep  cry  of  the  human  spirit,  of 
the  fatherhood  which  is  just,  of  the  mercy  which 
hates  wrong,  of  the  tenderness  which  is  impartial, 
of  the  love  which  never  fails.  It  tells  us,  as  nature 
but  merely  hints,  as  no  other  book  ever  can  tell 
us,  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  of  the 
covenants,  of  redemption,  of  healing  and  cleans- 
ing ;  of  the  victory  over  death,  of  the  life  beyond 
life,  in  which  what  is  now  dark  shall  be  made 
plain.  It  tells  us  of  ten  thousand  things  which 
guide,  comfort,  and  strengthen  us,  which  we  had 
all  our  lives  Ijeen  groping  after  in  the  dark ;  which 
we  felt  must  exist  somewhere  in  some  great 
Father,  and  which,  being  revealed  to  us  by  it, 
make  us  exclaim,  "  This  is  indeed  that  true  God 


WHAT   THE  BIBLE   SAYS   OF  GOD.  143 

and  eternal  life  which  should  come  into  the 
world !  " 

Is  it  not  a  joy  to  know,  dear  friend,  that  there 
has  been  one  instance  of  sonship  in  our  world, 
though  only  one,  which  was  a  perfect  response  to 
the  fatherhood  of  God?  The  sonship  died  in 
Adam,  but  it  was  made  alive  in  Christ,  and  in  him 
alone  it  has  not  failed.  How  this  singles  out 
Christ  from  all  that  have  been  born  of  women,  and 
makes  him  the  one  Christ  to  us,  as  there  is  one 
sun  in  our  heavens  !  We  cannot  look  on  our  own 
dishonored  sonship,  and  come  with  confidence  to 
the  Father ;  but  we  can  look  on  his,  and  know  that 
for  his  sake  God  will  regard  us  as  dear  children. 
He  is  our  elder  brother ;  he  represents  us  in  our 
relations  to  the  Father ;  he  mediates  for  us  with 
God,  and  with  him  God  is  ever  well  pleased. 

What  love  for  us  God  showed  by  inspiring  men 
to  tell  us  these  precious  truths  concerning  him, 
which  truths  he  had  revealed  to  them  !  God  has 
all  he  desires  in  himself.  It  is  his  glory  to  be 
concealed.  Why  should  he  not  love  that  solitude, 
that  life  within  himself,  which  is  the  hig-hest  boon 
that  we  sometimes  covet  ?  But  he  does  not  stay 
in  his  secret  place  ;  he  comes  out  of  his  covert, 
and  shows  himself  unto  us,  not  for  his  sake,  but 
for  ours.  Shall  he  thus  come  to  us,  and  we  shrink 
from  him?  Shall  he  call,  and  we  not  answer, — 
speak,  and  we  not  hear  ?    Shall  his  love  bring  him 


144  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

to  US,  and  we  hick  the  loving  impulse  which 
shall  carry  us  to  him.  We  know  that  we  are  his 
sinful  children,  as  his  book  tells  us  we  are.  Our 
hearts  leap  for  joy  at  the  tidings  of  his  perfect 
fatherhood,  which  that  book  brings  us.  Oh,  that 
we  might  rise  up  and  go  to  him,  that  he  might 
say  of  each  one  of  us,  "  This  my  son  was  dead, 
and  is  alive  again  ;  was  lost,  but  is  found  !  " 


CHAPTER  X. 

WHAT   THE   BIBLE   SAYS   OF   MORAL   ORDER. 

The  Bible  shows  itself  to  be  the  work  of  God, 
not  only  in  Avhat  it  says  of  God  and  man,  but  in 
what  it  says  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world. 
What  I  mean  by  the  moral  order  of  the  Avorld  Avill 
be  clear  to  us  if  we  look  a  little  at  the  physical 
order  of  the  world,  and  the  laws  on  which  that 
order  depends. 

The  most  obvious  instance  of  order  or  harmony 
in  nature  is  that  which  depends  on  the  law  of 
gravitation,  on  the  attraction  which  every  particle 
of  matter  has  for  every  other  particle.  There  is 
unity  and  harmony  throughout  nature,  from  the 
circumference  to  the  centre.  All  the  matter  in 
the  universe,  though  scattered  through  infinite 
space,  and  infinitely  various  in  forms  and  functions, 
is  yet  one  harmonious  system,  owing  to  that  force 
and  law  of  gravity  to  which  it  is  everywhere 
obedient.  This  wondrous  force  has  ruled  the  ten 
thousand  suns  in  immeasurable  space,  and  has 
created  their  planetary  systems.  It  keeps  the 
countless  worlds  in  their  places,  and  rolls  them  on 
in  their  daily  and  yearly  rounds.  The  tendency 
of  every  atom  of  matter  towards  every  other  atom 

145 


14()  A' or  OF  majY,  but  of  god. 

holds  the  solid  earth  together,  and  keeps  the  ocean 
from  rising  up  into  the  air.  It  is  the  ballasting 
which  keeps  the  shi})s  in  the  enil)race  of  the  waves  ; 
without  it  the  fishes  could  not  swim,  nor  the  birds 
fly.  The  force  of  gravity  holds  all  men  and 
animals  to  the  surface  of  the  ground,  it  makes  our 
liomcs  and  cities  stand  firm,  it  keeps  our  carriages 
and  trains  on  the  roadways  which  we  make  for  them. 
But  for  gravitation  and  its  laws,  the  streams  woukl 
have  no  flow  downward,  the  seed  which  quits  the 
sower's  hand  would  not  drop  into  the  soil,  the 
ploughshare  could  not  turn  its  furrow.  The  force 
of  gravity  draws  the  roots  of  the  trees  down  into 
the  ground,  makes  the  trees  stand  upright,  brings 
their  ripened  fruits  or  seeds  into  the  earth  to  make 
other  trees.  Thus  it  is  that  we  have,  out  of  his 
one  mighty  force,  the  beauteous  order  of  the  physi- 
cal world,  so  essential  to  our  physical  being  and 
well-being,  and  which  so  enchants  our  minds. 

Now  we  know  that  in  the  moral  world,  as  in  the 
natural,  there  is  a  single  principle  of  order  to 
which  all  our  activities,  and  all  the  activities  of 
other  moral  beings  throughout  the  universe,  should 
conform.  When  there  is  this  conformity  we  shall 
have  in  its  highest  manifestation  the  moral  order 
of  the  world.  We  call  this  principle  of  universal 
moral  order  by  various  names,  such  as  righteous- 
ness, justice,  benevolence,  rectitude  of  conduct, 
the  right  good-will  to  men,  disinterested  love,  and 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  MORAL  ORDER.    147 

SO  on.  This  idea  of  a  principle  or  law  of  moral 
order,  which  is  binding  upon  all  rational  l)eings,  is 
native  to  our  minds.  We  do. not  first  get  it  from 
our  Bibles.  All  men  have  it,  however  sadly 
neglected  and  undeveloped,  even  where  the  words 
of  revelation  have  not  gone.  Though  we  may  do 
wrong  ourselves,  we  demand  that  others  shall  do 
right.  Our  own  thoughts  condemn  us  when  we 
swerve  from  this  principle  of  moral  rectitude. 
The  wicked  know  that  they  ought  to  be  righteous, 
the  selfish  that  they  should  do  as  they  would  be 
done  by,  those  who  bite  and  devour  one  another 
that  they  should  love  their  neighbor  as  themselves. 
If  any  man  says  he  does  not  know  this,  it  is 
because  he  does  not  know  himself.  The  idea  is  in 
him,  nor  can  it  ever  be  wholly  destroyed.  He 
may  have  perverted  it ;  all  men  have,  more  or  less. 
He  may  have  let  the  faculty  for  this  knowledge 
rust  in  him  unused.  A  sensual  and  brutal  life 
may  have  put  it  to  sleep,  but  it  is  there.  It  comes 
forth  into  his  consciousness,  upbraids  him  for  his 
evil  ways,  and  still  points  him  to  the  faith  he 
should  walk  in,  as  often  as  he  reflects. 

Now  the  question  is,  Does  the  Bible  honor,  re- 
affirm, clear  up,  and  put  in  a  stronger  light  than 
any  other  book  ever  has,  this  inherent  conviction 
of  the  human  mind  ?  If  a  man  should  undertake 
to  teach  us  about  nature,  and  should  deny  the  law 
of  gravitation  which  Newton  discovered,  we  could 


148  NOT  OF  MAN.    BUT  OF  GOD. 

give  him  no  heed,  but  should  at  once  turn  him  a 
deaf  ear.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  recognized  the 
law,  if  he  set  forth  its  nature  and  workings  as 
neither  Newton  nor  any  one  else  ever  has,  showing 
an  entire  and  wonderful  mastery  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject, then  we  should  listen  to  him  ;  and  if  he  claimed 
to  be  specially  commissioned  to  expound  nature  to 
us,  we  should  be  disposed  to  admit  his  claim.  It  is 
on  such  a  ground,  dear  friend,  that  we  must 
receive  the  Bible  as  God's  book,  when  it  speaks  to 
us  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world. 

The  Bible  nowhere  denies  the  law  of  rectitude 
written  on  our  hearts.  It  affirms  that  law  all 
through  its  pages ;  emphasizes  it,  expounds  it, 
clears  it  up,  and  applies  it  as  no  other  book  has, 
as  all  other  books  together  never  have.  Many 
ethical  systems  have  been  thought  out  by  man,  — 
those  of  Socrates,  Confucius,  Sakya-muni,  Aris- 
totle, Seneca.  But  the  ethics  of  the  Bible  puts 
out  all  their  light,  as  the  noontide  sun  does  that  of 
our  candles.  Even  those  human  systems  which 
have  been  written  since  the  Bible  came,  and  which 
are  largely  drawn  from  it,  nevertheless  utterly  fail 
to  reach  its  high  plane.  It  expounds  our  duties  to 
one  another  with  a  plainness,  a  thoroughness,  and  a 
self-evidencing  power  which  we  nowhere  else  find. 
It  reveals  us  to  ourselves  in  our  divine  and 
eternal  relations,  as  other  books  do  not  even 
pretend  to  do.     The  horizon  of  conscience  around 


WFIAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  MORAL  OEDER.    149 

US  is  widened  while  it  speaks,  and  we  see  tlie 
sweep  and  glory  of  the  law  of  righteousness  in  a 
wholly  new  and  heavenly  light. 

How  wonderfully  it  teaches  the  one  great  law 
of  all  moral  order  !  —  more  by  example  than  by  ab- 
stract precept,  especially  in  the  beginning.  God 
himself  first  appears  as  the  perfect  embodiment  of 
the  principle.  He  calls  and  sets  apart  men,  from 
Abraham  onward,  whose  office  it  is  to  uphold  this 
law.  So  far  as  they  are  true  to  their  office  we 
see  order  coming  out  of  confusion,  and  God  steps 
forth  to  vindicate  moral  order  when  it  is  broken. 
The  first  kingdom  which  he  sets  up  is  a  theocracy  ; 
for  only  as  he,  who  is  love,  rules  in  the  earth, 
does  social  chaos  end  and  the  true  order  of  society 
beg-in.  That  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  would  do 
right  was  a  truth  which  the  most  untutored  con- 
science could  accept.  Yet  how  wisely,  in  a  slow 
and  progressive  way,  as  men  could  bear  it,  the 
law  of  righteousness  is  unfolded  in  the  Bible !  It 
does  not  at  once  bind  on  men's  shoulders  a  burden 
too  heavy  to  be  borne.  It  was  but  gradually  that 
men  could  be  lifted  out  of  the  wickedness  in  which 
they  were  sunk. 

God  allowed  some  things  to  them  on  account  of 
the  hardness  of  their  hearts.  The  morality  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  perfect  in  principle,  but  could 
come  out  only  imperfectly  in  the  lives  of  those 
primitive  men.     With    this    human  imperfection 


150  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

God  had  patience,  as  he  still  is  patient  toward 
human  faults.  In  one  alone,  Jesus  Christ  his 
own  Son,  was  the  principle  of  moral  order  acted 
out  perfectly  in  our  world.  He  did  the  Father's 
will.  He  was  love,  as  the  Father  is  love.  He 
shoAved  us  in  his  life  and  death  what  is  that  law 
which,  when  all  men  obey  it,  will  make  the  moral 
and  social  world  more  gloriously  in  harmony  than 
the  world  of  matter. 

But  before  that  which  was  perfect  came,  all 
through  the  times  of  the  imperfect,  the  law  of 
righteousness  was  made  manifest.  Men  and 
nations  were  destroyed  for  breaking  this  law,  and 
the  people  of  God  prospered  only  as  they  obeyed 
it.  The  word  *'  righteousness,"  or  its  equivalents, 
resounds  all  through  the  writings  of  Moses,  of 
David  and  Solomon,  of  the  later  prophets.  It 
rises  more  and  more  into  view,  as  in  the  geologi- 
cal periods  the  mountains  rose  out  of  the  sea ;  as 
we  all  pass  from  infancy  to  manhood  by  a  process 
of  gradual  unfolding  ;  as  in  the  fields  where  we  have 
sown  our  grain  there  is  first  the  blade,  then  the 
ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  The  per- 
fect moral  order  which  came  forth  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  which  is  one  day  to  make  the  lives  of  all  men 
a  psalm  of  praise  in  God's  ear,  was  that  which 
moved  him  to  make  the  earth  and  put  man  upon 
it ;  was  that  which  he  watched  all  through  the  un- 
folding of  his  purpose ;  is  that  which  shines  forth 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  MORAL  ORDER.    151 

more  and  more  clearly  upon  us  as  we  turn  the 
pages  of  the  Bible.  Whether  we  call  it  righteous- 
ness, or  benevolence,  or  love,  the  law  of  it  is  written 
on  our  hearts  ;  and  the  Bible  gives  it  back  to  us 
in  such  clear  and  uniform  and  authoritative  tones  as 
belong  to  none  but  God. 

This  law  of  moml  order  is  common  to  God  and 
all  his  children.  Let  us  not  fear  to  think  of  God 
as  himself  setting  us  an  example  of  obedience.  He 
does  obey  this  sacred,  all-encompassing  law  of 
which  I  have  spoken  ;  and  it  is  by  thus  obeying  that 
he  reigns  supreme.  God  would  not  be  God  if  he 
should  cease  to  be  love.  Our  own  hearts  tell  us 
this,  and  the  Bible  confirms  what  they  say.  God 
will  never  disobey  the  law  which  is  to  bring  har- 
mony and  peace  to  the  universe  at  last.  He  is 
supreme.  He  has  in  himself  all  blessedness  and 
power.  Hence  it  is  not  possible  that  he  should 
ever  be  tempted  to  do  wrong.  Our  temptations 
arise  out  of  the  fact  that  we  are  finite  ;  that  we  are 
not  wholly  blessed ;  that  we  long  for  things  which 
are  not  as  yet  ours.  If  we  were  perfectly  satisfied 
with  what  is  innocently  ours,  we  could  not  be 
tempted  to  break  the  law  of  love.  Therefore,  God 
cannot  be  tempted  to  break  it.  If  he  should,  his 
sense  of  guilt  would  be  to  ours  as  the  ocean  to  the 
drop.  What  is  the  power  of  conscience  in  us  to 
what  it  is  in  him  ?  He  tells  us  that  he  hates  in- 
iquity :   what,  then,  if  he  should  see   iniquity   in 


152  NOT  OF  31  AN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

himself?  The  wrong  domg  of  poor,  feel)le  mor- 
tals has  spread  confusion  through  our  world : 
what,  then,  would  hapjoen  if  the  infinite  God 
should  do  wrong?  If  he  were  wrong,  all  our 
righteousness  could  amount  to  nothing ;  but  he  is 
right,  and,  therefore,  the  universe  is  safe,  and 
shall  at  last  sing  its  glad  psalm  of  peace,  despite 
all  the  wickedness  which  is  now  in  it.  Such  is 
the  testimony  of  our  deepest  thought,  and  to  it 
the  Bible  is  one  glorious  divine  response. 

God  obeys  the  law  which  is  yet  to  harmonize 
the  moral  world,  and  for  this  cause  he  is  infinitely 
blessed.  Not  because  he  is  great,  not  because  he 
made  and  rules  all  thinsrs,  not  because  he  is  high 
and  lifted  up  and  worshipped  by  both  angels  and 
men ;  but  because  he  is  good,  because  he  is  love, 
because  he  watches  over  all  beings  and  events  with 
a  fatherly  tenderness,  and  will  at  length  bring 
them  to  the  highest  possible  beauty  and  glory,  is 
he  forevermore  filled  with  a  boundless  and  radiant 
joy.  And  what  his  living  for  the  harmony  of  the 
moral  universe  does  for  him,  such  in  proper  meas- 
ure may  our  respect  to  the  law  of  righteousness 
do  for  us.  It  is  a  law  common  to  us  and  him,  and 
it  works  out  everywhere  the  same  results.  They 
can  difier  only  in  degree,  never  in  kind.  If  we 
are  righteous,  we  shall  eat  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness ;  if  we  sow  to  the  spirit,  we  shall  of  the  spirit 
reap  life  everlasting ;  if  we  are  helping  to  make 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  MORAL  ORDER.    153 

the  new  heavens  and  earth,  we  shall  ourselves  be 
renewed  with  them.  God,  who  is  love,  gave  his 
joy  to  Christ,  and  Christ  gives  his  joy  to  as  many 
as  live  his  life  of  meekness  and  self-sacrifice. 
There  is  a  kind  of  superficial  happiness  which  de- 
pends on  earthly  position, — how  you  are  clothed 
and  fed,  what  your  fellow-men  think  of  you,  or  the 
power  you  are  able  to  wield  over  them.  But  real 
blessedness  depends  on  none  of  these  things.  So 
your  heart  teaches  you,  and  to  this  teaching  the 
Bible  gives  more  than  a  human,  a  truly  divine, 
response.  It  clearly  and  mightil}'  says,  as  your 
own  soul  says  feebly,  that  you  are  not  blessed  as 
you  are  rich,  as  you  are  powerful,  as  you  are 
honored  of  men,  as  you  have  all  earthly  pleasures 
and  delights,  but  as  you  love  the  Lord  your  God 
with  all  your  heart,  and  your  neighbor  as  your- 
self. Love,  true  love,  such  love  as  Christ  had 
and  proclaimed,  not  only  casts  out  fear,  but  every- 
thing else  which  has  torment ;  it  makes  you  to  be 
in  league  with  the  divine  order  of  the  world ;  all 
things  are  yours,  and  you  are  swept  on  with  them, 
God  himself  being  over  all  and  in  all,  to  that 
bright  consummation  which  God  has  purposed. 
The  more  you  study  the  laws  of  your  own  con- 
science, the  more  does  some  such  glorious  dream 
as  this  open  before  you  in  the  far-coming  vistas ; 
and  the  Bible  is  that  divine  word  which  comes  to 
you  to  interpret  your  dream. 


154  -^07   OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

But  I  have  hinted  at  the  doom  of  those  who 
break  this  hiw,  at  what  God  would  sufler  if  he 
could  possibly  cease  to  regard  it.  We  know  that 
men  are,  in  their  character  and  life,  unlike  God, 
and  one  of  the  tirst  things  which  the  Bible  teaches 
us  is  that  they  have  thus  fallen  away.  We  cannot 
clearly  account  for  this  apostasy,  nor  does  the 
Bible  attempt  to  solve  for  us  the  dark  problem  of 
evil.  Our  great  need  is  to  be  raised  out  of  the  pit 
of  sin  ;  and  to  that  gracious  work  the  Bible  applies 
itself.  Yet  it  throws  light,  such  as  man  could  not, 
into  the  gulf  out  of  which  it  w^ould  lift  us.  It 
brings  in  a  malign  spiritual  power.  This  power  it 
gives  personality  to  in  the  form  of  the  serpent, 
and  shows  it  to  us  in  Eden.  Man  would  not  have 
fallen  but  for  two  things  :  a  desire  within  him  for 
what  God  had  forbidden,  and  the  tempter  appeal- 
ing to  that  desire.  Our  finiteness,  our  yearning  for 
what  w^e  liaA^e  not,  so  strikingly  pictured  to  us  by 
the  tree  in  the  midst  of  the  garden,  lays  us  open 
to  temptation.  That  is  as  far  as  human  thought 
has  ever  gone  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  sin ;  and 
for  that  we  are  indebted  to  the  Bible,  which  threw 
this  utmost  possible  light  on  the  dark  question  ages 
before  human  philosoph}^  was  born.  The  doctrine 
of  Satan,  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  of  which 
the  Bible  is  so  full,  has  lieen  objected  to  by  super- 
ficial thinkers,  but  never  by  those  who  think  pro- 
foundly on  the  origin  of  evil.     It  is  a  great  light 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  MORAL  ORDER.    155 

shed  on  the  facts  of  human  wickedness,  it  joins 
with  the  tree  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  in 
proclaiming  that  the  Bible  is  God's  book. 

And  as  what  the  Bible  says  of  the  origin  of  sin 
shows  it  to  be  divine,  so  what  it  SRys  of  its 
consequences,  of  punishment,  of  retribution, 
proves  the  same.  The  idea  of  retribution  was  in 
the  world  before  the  Bible  came.  All  men  had  it ; 
it  is  native  to  the  human  mind,  and  was  waked  up 
by  the  presence  of  sin.  You  can  lind  no  race,  no 
tribe;  no  man,  woman,  or  child  in  which  this  idea 
has  not  shown  itself  in  some  form.  The  imagery 
of  outer  darkness,  of  unquenchable  fire,  of  the 
worm  that  never  dies,  was  in  the  world 
when  the  Bible  began  to  be  written.  It 
makes  use  of  this  material  imagery,  as  on  all 
themes  it  speaks  the  common  language  of  men. 
But  how  it  has  cleared  up  the  doctrine  which  it 
found  !  —  not  denyhig  it,  everywhere  confirming  it, 
yet  graduall}^  taking  away  from  it  all  that  was 
gross  and  brutal,  tracing  it  to  the  laws  of  con- 
science, making  it  that  remorse,  that  fiery  and 
eternal  self-condemnation,  that  abhorrence  felt  by 
God  and  all  righteous  beings,  which  we  know 
from  experience  that  the  commission  of  crime  and 
sin  must  ever  bring.  The  retribution  into  which 
we  are  hurried  by  our  sins  is  due  to  the  laws 
which  govern  our  moral  nature  ',  God  does  not  ar- 
bitrarily inflict  it  upon  us. 


156  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

What,  then,  should  we  say  of  a  book  which  did 
not  recognize  those  laws  ?  What  must  we  say  of 
any  or  all  books  which  deny  retribution,  or  which 
try  to  show  that  it  is  not  in  the  Bible?  Its 
absence  from  the  Bible  would  go  to  show  that  the 
book  is  not  divine,  that  it  is  a  merely  human  and 
sophistical  book.  When  God  speaks,  he  says,  as 
our  moral  nature  says  :  "  In  the  day  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die."  We  know  who  it 
was  that  said  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  surely  die."  Oh, 
how  hard  it  must  have  been  for  God  to  warn  and 
threaten  his  sinnins;  children  ns  he  does  all  throuo-h 
the  Bible  !  You  know  from  what  earthly  parents 
often  sufler  that  it  must  have  grieved  him  to  the 
heart.  But  what  are  our  pity  and  tenderness  to 
his?  He  is  infinite  in  all  his  attributes,  in  his  emo- 
tions, in  his  feelings  toward  sinful  men.  His  com- 
passions are  unspeakable.  Yet  the  Bible,  claiming 
to  speak  for  him,  probes  the  human  conscience  as  no 
other  books  do.  Is  any  but  God  capable  of  such 
faithfulness  ?  Would  any  other  dare  so  to  arraign 
mankind  ?  or  could  even  he  do  it,  except  to  make 
an  entrance  into  our  hearts  for  some  saving  and 
cleansing  mercy  which  he  brings?  He  dares  to 
gather  up  those  elements  of  remorse  which  are  in 
us  all,  and  to  give  them  back  to  us  in  tones  fitted 
to  make  us  cry  out  for  deliverance.  Ah,  dear 
friend,  if  you  would  but  hear  those  tones  !  The 
sweet  tenderness  and  compassion  which  breathe 
through  them  are  infinite. 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  MORAL  ORDEB.    157 

Read  the  rebukes  of  our  blessed  Lord  to  the 
Pharisees,  and  to  his  own  faithless  disciples. 
Nowhere  else  can  you  find  any  denunciations  so 
terrible.  Yet  could  we  have  been  there,  could  we 
have  heard  him  speak,  and  looked  on  his  sorrowful 
face,  we  can  but  think  that  his  heavenly  accents 
would  have  melted  our  hearts,  and  that  we  should 
have  wept,  as  he  often  wept,  over  sinning  men. 
But  God  cannot  be  anything  less  than  God.  He 
is  faithful  and  true,  infinitely  honest  in  his  dealing 
with  us.  The  Bible  shows  that  it  is  his  word  to 
us,  in  what  it  says  of  the  consequences  of  our  sins. 
That  law  of  righteousness  on  Avhich  the  moral 
order  of  the  world  depends  is  eternal.  It  is  to  the 
relations  of  all  rational  beings  what  the  law  of 
gravity  is  to  the  world  of  matter.  God  obeys  it, 
and  is  supremely  blessed.  He  made  his  universe 
for  it,  and  it  shall  bring  all  who  obey  it  into 
perfect  harmony  at  last.  This  much  our  own 
consciousness  tells  us ;  and  if  we  have  broken  that 
holy  law,  we  carry  within  us  the  witness  that  we 
cannot  escape  its  doom.  With  that  inward  witness 
the  Bible  agrees,  agrees  with  it  as  no  other  book 
ever  has.  We  read  it,  and  we  say,  "How 
thoroughly  the  author  of  this  book  knows  what  is 
in  men  !  Our  ideas  of  moral  order,  and  of  the 
blessedness  or  retribution  which  that  order  deals 
out,  are  here  all  confirmed,  cleared  up,  put  in  such 
a  light  as  we  can  nowhere  else  find.      He  who  has 


158  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

sent  us  this  book  must  be  one  who  knows  us 
altogether,  who  searches  our  hearts,  who  tries  our 
reins,  who  weighs  our  spirits  in  a  balance." 

None  but  the  God  who  made  man  could  have 
this  profound  knowledge  of  man's  spiritual  na- 
ture. God  alone  could  thus  beset  us  behind 
and  before,  and  lay  his  hand  upon  us ;  could 
reveal  to  us  those  deep  workings  of  our  minds 
which  we  lack  words  to  speak.  We  are  fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  made,  and  that  our  soul 
knoweth  right  well.  Yet  here  is  one  who  knows 
us  better  than  we  know  ourselves.  Our  most 
secret  faults  are  committed  in  the  light  of  his 
countenance.  Our  dreamy  and  half-formed  desires 
he  gives  back  to  us  in  such  a  way  that  we  are 
thereby  first  revealed  to  ourselves.  We  find  that 
there  is  not  a  thought  in  our  heart,  or  a  word  in 
our  tongue,  but  lo  !  he  knows  it  altogether.  Can 
this  be  a  man  who  is  speaking  to  us  out  of  this 
book  ?  Never  !  Impossible  !  So  meagre  a  cause 
could  never  produce  so  wondrous  an  effect.  God 
is  in  this  book.  It  makes  the  place  where  it  is 
none  other  than  the  house  of  God,  and  the  gate  of 
heaven. 

"  There  are,  in  this  unreverential  age, 

Who,  dazed  b}"  vain  pliilosophy,  have  classed 
The  revelations  of  the  sacred  page 
Amongst  the  bursten  bubbles  of  the  past. 
Be  ours  the  wisdom  still  to  hold  them  fast; 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAVS  OF  MORAL  OEDER.    159 

Not  as  despising  aught  that  sense  can  teach, 
Or  any  light  that  closer  search  may  cast 

On  this  world's  mysteries,  or  thought  can  reach 
From  inmost  corners  of  its  right  domain ; 

But  Hrmly  fixed  iu  this:  that  after  each 

Has  reaped  its  ripest  knowledge,  there  remain 

Truths  that  transcend   or  human  thought  or  speech, 
Or  nature's  oracle.     These  to  despise, 
When  God  unveils  them,  let  us  think  unfvise." 


CHAPTER   XI. 

WHAT   THE   BIBLE   SAYS   OF   REDEMPTION. 

I  HAVE,  in  the  last  three  chapters,  spoken  a 
little  of  certain  truths  and  facts  which  we  partially 
know  before  the  Bible  comes  to  us ;  which  truths 
and  facts  the  Bible  not  only  confirms,  but  thor- 
oughly reveals  and  clears  up  in  a  way  possible  to 
none  but  God. 

Concerning  man,  we  know  that  he  has  high 
spiritual  capacities,  and  the  Bible  tells  us  that  he 
is  the  child  of  God  ;  we  know  that  he  thinks  him- 
self immortal,  and  this  thouoht  the  Bible  Ijrins^s 
out  into  the  light ;  we  know  that  he  is  out  of 
harmony  with  himself  and  the  true  order  of  things, 
and  the  Bible  tells  us  that  he  has  fallen  away  from 
his  original  fellowship  with  God.  Concerning 
God,  we  know  that  he  exists,  and  the  Bible  every- 
where takes  his  existence  for  granted ;  we  know 
that  he  must  have  a  father's  feelings  towards  us. 
and  the  Bible  gives  to  this  knowledge  a  new  glory 
and  depth ;  our  idea  of  him  makes  us  feel  that  he 
must  be  infinitely  just  and  impartial,  and  the  Bible 
everywhere  assures  us  that  he  will  do  right.  Con- 
cerning the  moral  order  of  the  world,  we  know 

160 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDE3IPTI0X.     161 

that  there  is  a  law  of  righteousness  which  all 
rational  beings  should  obey,  and  the  Bible  through- 
out its  pages  solemnly  proclaims  the  sacredness 
of  this  law ;  we  know  that  all  who  keep  this  law 
are  blessed,  and  this  knowledge  the  Bible  wonder- 
fully clears  up  ;  we  know  that  whoever  breaks 
this  law  of  righteousness  or  love  brings  on  himself 
the  condemnation  of  all  enlightened  consciences, 
and  the  Bible  paints  to  us  in  flaming  colors  the 
awfulness  of  this  doom. 

But  I  now  bring  you,  dear  friend,  to  that  in  the 
Bible  which  our  natural  reason  does  not  reveal  to 
us,  —  to  that  which  the  angel  meant  when  he  said 
to  our  Lord's  mother,  "  Thou  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus,  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins.'" 
This  is  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  God's  precious  book. 
We  should  approach  it  with  awe,  yet  with  a 
tremulous  joy.  There  is  not,  in  this  volume, 
space  for  an  adequate  treatment  of  the  theme ; 
or  if  there  were  the  space  and  the  time,  no  man 
can  speak  of  it  as  it  deserves.  Redeeming  love  is 
the  wonder  of  wonders,  as  it  is  the  truth  of  truths. 
The  greatest  minds  have  been  trying  to  expound 
it  ever  since  God  first  revealed  it  to  man,  but  it 
is  yet  the  unexplained  mystery.  Children  know 
as  much  of  it  as  the  wise  and  prudent.  Angels 
try  to  look  into  it,  but  it  is  sealed  to  their  gaze. 
We  may  know  its  power  in  our  experience,  but 
all  our  attempts  to  draw  it  out   into  dogmas  or 


162  ^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

formulas  fall  short.  We  may  lift  the  curtain,  we 
may  enter  in,  we  may  look  on  the  mystery  till  we 
feel  the  load  of  guilt  falling  away  from  our  hearts  ; 
but  when  asked  to  tell  what  it  is,  we  can  only  say, 
"  It  is  the  blood  of  Calvary,  it  is  the  cross  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

This  was  an  absolutely  new  truth  in  the  world 
when  God  first  spoke  it  to  men.  Turn  olf  on 
either  hand  from  the  pathway  of  divine  revelations, 
and  search  where  you  will  among  secular  histories, 
and  you  nowhere  come  upon  the  clear  announce- 
ment of  salvation  from  sin.  That  voice  first  began 
to  be  heard  in  Eden  as  soon  as  the  forl^idden  fruit 
was  eaten,  and  it  culminated  in  the  ghid  cry  at 
Bethlehem,  "  Behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of 
great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people."  The 
greatest  sages  of  antiquity,  to  whom  God  had  not 
spoken,  were  unable  to  believe  in  the  forgiveness 
of  sin.  Socrates  and  Plato,  who  came  as  near  the 
truth  as  any,  only  hoped  that  in  some  way  God 
might  be  able  to  forgive  sin,  but  they  did  not  see 
how.  They  believed  in  the  punishment  of  sin 
with  all  their  heart ;  but  how  the  sinner  could  be 
saved  from  punishment  was  a  question  before 
which  they  stood  dumb.  We  cannot  doubt  that 
they,  and  perhaps  millions  of  others  who  did  not 
hear  of  a  Saviour  from  sin  while  in  the  flesh,  yet 
had  such  contrition  and  such  views  of  the  guilt  of 
sin,  that  they  would  have  at  once  laid  hold  of  the 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDEMPTION.     163 

cross,  had  it  been  shown  them ;  nor  can  we  doubt 
that  they  now  rejoice  in  it  in  the  world  where  all 
is  revealed.  Yes,  dear  friend,  men  have  always 
been  able  to  discover  that  they  were  sinners,  and 
that  the  laws  of  conscience  doomed  them  to  suffer 
for  their  sin.  But  how  to  escape  this  doom  when 
it  had  been  once  incurred  was  a  dark  riddle  which 
they  could  not  solve,  from  the  bare  sight  of  which 
they  shrank  appalled.  As  long  ago  as  the  time 
of  Job  the  cry  broke  forth  out  of  guilty  hearts, 
"  Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ? 
how  shall  man  be  just  with  God  ?  " 

This  question,  which  presses  upon  all  men,  and 
which  no  man  has  ever  answered,  not  only  has  so 
clear  an  answer  in  the  Bible  as  to  prove  that  the 
Bible  is  God's  book,  but  the  answer  itself,  though 
the  only  one  possible,  is  such  that  our  poor,  blind 
hearts  are  sometimes  slow  to  accept  it.  The 
mighty  truth  of  atonement,  of  reconciliation  to 
God,  of  propitiation  for  sin  through  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  has  been  set  at  naught  and  ridiculed. 
But  it  is  when  men  have  not  seen  their  sin,  when 
they  have  forgotten  the  laws  of  conscience  and 
the  moral  order  of  the  world,  that  they  have 
mocked.  When  they  have  known  themselves, 
and  that  eternal  order  with  which  their  lives 
are  at  war,  they  have  not  said  that  the  vicarious 
sacrifice  is  a  relic  of  barbarism,  or  that  the  doctrine 
of  atonement  makes  God  a  merciless  tyrant,  or 


164  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

that  the  cross  is  "  the  central  gallows  of  the  uni- 
verse." Far  from  that !  Feeling  their  guilt,  and 
knowing  that  in  the  nature  of  things  punishment 
must  forever  follow  guilt,  they  wonder  and  adore, 
and  believe  and  love,  when  they  see  the  blood 
which  cleanses  from  all  sin,  when  they  behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world. 

This  truth  of  a  crucified  Redeemer,  in  whose 
death  we  die  unto  sin,  and  in  Avhose  life  we  are 
made  alive  unto  God,  is  that  which  gives  to  the 
Bible  its  unique  and  unspeakable  value  for  us. 
Take  the  sun  out  of  the  heavens,  but  do  not  take 
this  out  of  the  holy  message  which  God  has  sent 
us.  This  is  the  shrine  for  which  the  temple  was 
built ;  and  what  is  the  temple  without  the  shrine  ? 
That  temple,  the  revelation  which  God  has  given, 
stands  before  us  beautiful  and  vast.  Its  massive 
walls  and  soaring  pinnacles  draw  us  to  it  from  afar. 
On  all  sides  of  it  doors  stand  open,  through  which 
the  solemn  light  and  the  song  flow  forth  over  us. 
Enter  by  what  dooi*  of  inquiry  we  will,  all  the 
aisles  lead  inward  and  inward,  till  we  stand  under 
the  glory  of  the  high  and  surrounding  dome. 
There  it  is  that  we  see  the  cross  which  gives  a 
divine  meaning  to  the  whole  building,  —  the  cross 
in  which  St.  Paul  gloried,  refusing  to  glory  in 
aught  else  ;  the  cross  around  whose  head  sublime 
is  gathered  all   the  light   of    sacred   story ;    the 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDEMPTION.     165 

cross  which  towers  above  the  wrecks  of  mighty 
civiliz.'itions ;  the  cross  which  is  everywhere 
cherished  as  the  symbol  of  what  is  holiest  and 
sweetest  in  the  world.  Let  no  scoffing  criticism 
spit  out  its  venom  against  this  sacred  and  blessed 
thing.  Take  away  the  Book  when  you  have  taken 
this  away  out  of  the  Book.  What  is  it  to  us  but 
an  unspeakable  torment  to  know  that  God  is  holy 
and  made  the  universe  for  holiness,  while  we  find 
no  salvation  from  the  sin  under  which  we  are  fiillen  ? 
Conscience  and  reason  and  nature  tell  us  all  that  is 
dark  or  horrible  in  our  case.  If  this  Book  only  re- 
peats their  words,  if  it  does  not  bring  us  any 
tidings  of  a  rescue  from  our  doom,  take  it  away. 
We  want  no  more  sense  of  guilt,  we  want  forgive- 
ness. We  want  no  more  darkness, 'we  want  light. 
We  want  no  more  of  the  wrath  of  God,  we  want 
peace  with  God.  Tear  down  the  temple,  let  not 
one  stone  of  it  remain  upon  another,  if  the  cross 
which  we  need  to  find  at  its  centre  be  taken  away. 
This  is  what  our  hearts  say,  and  this  is  what  they 
do  who  take  from  the  Bible  the  cross  of  Christ. 
That  gone,  the  whole  structure  falls  to  pieces.  It 
has  no  coherence  or  meaning:  left.  Those  who  do 
not  find  an  atonement,  salvation  from  sin,  peace 
with  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  Bible,  soon 
find  themselves  without  any  Bible  at  all.  Having 
spoiled  the  kernel,  they  throw  away  the  husk. 
You  send  for  your  physician  not  merely  to  learn 


166  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

that  you  are  sick,  —  you  know  that  already, — but 
that  you  may  be  healed.  Suppose  he  comes  and 
tells  you  what  you  knew  before,  gives  you  a  clearer 
knowledge  than  you  had  of  your  exact  condition, 
and  then  goes  away.  He  does  not  tell  you  what 
to  do,  does  not  prescribe  any  remedies.  How 
long  would  you  suffer  yourself  to  be  thus  mocked  ? 
He  is  no  physician  to  you  who  only  tells  you  that 
you  are  sick,  and  does  not  tell  you  how  to  get 
well.  You  know  that  you  are  hurt ;  "Is  there  no 
balm  in  Gilead?  May  not  my  hurt  be  healed?"  is 
your  anxious  cry.  "  Yes,  there  is  balm  :  you  may 
be  healed,"  says  the  great  Physician.  If  all  the 
wise  men  who  have  ever  lived  should  come  to  us, 
and  try  to  tell  us  how  we  may  be  in  harmony  with 
the  moral  order  of  the  world,  they  could  not  do  it. 
They  would  be  forced  to  go  away  and  leave  us  no 
medicine.  They  would  have  either  to  depart  in 
silence,  or  say  :  "  You  must  die  ;  we  can  do  nothing 
for  you."  But  the  Bible  comes,  and  it  says 
nothing  of  this  sort.  They  are  the  mighty  words 
of  comfort  and  hope  which  it  speaks  to  us.  It 
shows  us  the  malignity  of  our  disease  as  nothing 
else  could,  but  it  does  not  then  say  that  we  must 
die;  no,  dear  friend,  it  says  live:  "Live,  for  I 
have  found  a  ransom." 

"  I  have  found  a  ransom,"  is  the  glad  voice 
which  rolls  through  the  sky  from  the  Alpha  to  the 
Omega  of  this  message.     That  is  the  everlasting 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDEMPTION.     167 

gospel  which  the  angel,  flying  in  the  midst  of 
heaven,  has  to  preach  unto  men.  It  is  a  cloud- 
scattering,  a  light-giving,  a  heart-uplifting  voice 
wherever  it  is  heard.  No  man,  who  has  looked 
into  his  own  soul  and  the  true  nature  of  things, 
ever  refused  to  hear  that  voice.  The  "  atonement," 
"  cross,"  "  vicarious  sacrifice,"  at  which  men  have 
stumbled,  is  some  intellectual  theory  of  the  great 
ransom  which  men  have  thought  out.  When  the 
ransom  itself,  in  all  its  divine  beauty  and  wonder- 
fulness,  bursts  on  our  sight  we  do  not  reject  it ;  we 
lay  hold  of  it,  we  clasp  it  with  frantic  joy  to  our 
hearts.  Acute  thinkers  have  tried  to  formulate 
the  truth,  and  other  acute  thinkers  have  rebelled 
against  the  formulas," and  in  the  heat  of  debate 
some  have  been  carried  on  until  they  could  see  in 
the  precious  truth  itself  no  beauty.  Oh,  how 
differently  it  looked  to  them,  how  full  of  a  glo- 
rious and  divine  power  to  comfort  and  heal  them, 
when  it  came  to  them  in  the  simplicity  and  fresh- 
ness of  the  Bible  !  It  was  to  them  as  the  rose  and 
the  lily,  as  the  dew  that  descended  on  Hermon  and 
on  Mount  Zion.  There  is  nothing  which  men  are 
naturally  quicker  to  believe  in  than  the  atoning 
work  of  Christ.  When  they  first  hear  it  from  the 
lips  of  Christian  missionaries,  it  is  altogether  new 
and  mysterious  to  them,  yet  they  listen  to  it,  to 
the  story  of  the  cross,  with  an  eager  joy.  "  Where 
did  you  find  out  this  ?  "  they  ask.     They  naturally 


168  ^'OT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

feel  tliJit  no  man  could  have  tauoht  it.  "  We 
found  it  in  this  volume,  which  is  God's  book,"  is 
the  only  answer  that  can  meet  their  earnest 
questioning.  If  we  must  have  human  theories  of 
this  work  of  salvation  from  sin,  let  them  stay- 
where  they  may  perhaps  do  some  good, — round 
about  the  sacred  truth  which  error  is  assailing. 
But  to  a  world  lying  in  wickedness,  to  human 
hearts  conscious  of  their  guilt,  carry  the  story  of 
the  cross  in  the  simple  words  in  which  the  apostles 
tell  it,  and  no  one  can  withstand  its  power.  It  is  just 
that  which  every  soul  that  knows  itself  is  yearning 
for.  It  is  manna  to  the  hungry,  and  to  the  weary  it 
is  rest.  It  is  the  old  story  which  our  blessed  Lord 
himself  so  often  told  to  wondering  listeners  ;  which 
bowed  the  hearts  of  the  multitude  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost ;  which  has  gone  through  the  world 
making  the  solitary  place  glad,  and  causing  the 
desert  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 

We  know,  dear  friend,  that  we  have  broken  the 
law  of  righteousness,  on  which  the  moral  order  of 
the  world  depends.  We  are  suffering  the  penalties 
of  that  broken  law  in  our  own  consciences,  and  we 
see  not  how  we  can  ever  cease  thus  to  suffer. 
That  which  puts  an  end  to  remorse  must  put  an 
end  to  the  remembrance  of  sin.  Who  can  save  us 
from  the  consequences  of  what  we  have  done? 
Who  can  so  completely  draw  us  into  a  new  life  in 
him  as  to  make  us  forget  how  we  have  lived  in  the 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDEMPTION.     169 

past  ?  No  man  has  yet  been  found  who  was  able 
to  answer  these  questions.  It  can  be  none  other 
than  God's  book  in  which  w^e  read  how  sinful  men 
may  be  forgiven,  saved,  cleansed,  restored  to  the 
divine  order  which  now  wars  against  them.  One 
who  is  without  sin,  who  is  the  Son  of  God  and  in 
perfect  accord  with  him,  is  born  into  our  sinful  hu- 
manity. He  belongs  to  no  race,  no  family,  no 
age.  He  is  the  elder  brother  of  you,  of  me,  of 
every  soul  that  has  been,  or  that  shall  be,  born  into 
the  world.  He  is  the  Son  of  man  at  the  same 
time  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God.  He  comes  to  us 
and  beseeches  us  to  let  him  act  in  our  behalf.  "  I 
will  be  your  representative ;  I  will  take  your 
place  and  act  for  you,"  he  says,  "  with  respect  to 
that  moral  order  which  you  have  violated."  Yes, 
dear  friend,  Jesus  Christ  stands  between  us  and 
our  fears ;  he  meets  the  retribution  which  is 
marchinof  down  as-ainst  us,  and  all  its  force  is 
absorbed  in  him,  while  we  make  him  our  substitute 
by  our  ow^n  act  of  faith  in  his  name.  He  walks 
with  us  in  the  flames,  and  we  are  not  scorched. 
He  stands  between  us  and  righteousness ;  between 
us  and  judgment ;  between  us  and  death.  The 
fierce  wrath  and  fury  of  all  these  rush  against 
him,  but  they  can  go  no  farther.  They  are  so  ab- 
sorbed, satisfied,  and  done  away  in  him  that  they 
cannot  get  to  us.  "  Look,"  says  our  Bible  ;  "  see 
the  stormy  surges  beating  against  this  rock  only  to 


170  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

be  conquered.  How  they  are  hurled  back  from  it ! 
They  lie  stunned  and  ashamed  at  its  base.  They 
cannot  shake  it  or  move  it  out  of  its  place,  for 
it  is  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  in  it  there  is  a  hiding- 
place  for  every  soul  that  has  sinned."  The  wrath 
of  that  moral  order  which  is  comin<y  out  ao^ainst  us 
fully  exhausts  itself,  comes  to  an  end,  is  as  though 
it  had  never  been,  in  Him  who  humbled  himself  to 
the  death  of  the  cross.  We  are  by  our  faith 
crucified  with  him,  and  with  him  we  through  that 
same  faith  live  and  reign.  For  we  are  in  him,  and 
he  is  in  us ;  and  the  law  of  righteousness  being- 
forever  fulfilled  in  him,  there  is  no  more  condem- 
nation, —  no  more  guilty  conscience  to  them  that 
are  in  Christ  Jesus,  l)ut  peace  with  ourselves  and 
with  God.  The  enmity  is  slain  by  the  cross.  We 
see  that  hoverina^  alons;  the  front  of  the  black 
armies  of  retribution.  Those  armies,  so  eager  to 
overwhelm  us,  are  themselves  overwhelmed,  when 
they  come  up  to  that  sacred  symbol.  They  sink 
down  out  of  sight,  and  we  see  them  no  more.  So 
long  as  the  cross  does  not  forsake  us,  we  are  safe 
even  against  our  own  sins.  This  is  what  we  read 
in  our  Bibles  about  escaping  the  dread  conse- 
quences of  sin.  No  man  ever  told  us  any  such 
thino'. 

Men  cannot  intellectually  grasp  the  truth  of 
salvation  by  the  cross.  They  fret  at  it  in  their 
cold,  intellectual  moods,   and  reject  it,  or  try  to 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDEMPTION.     171 

explain  it  away.  But  when  conscience  is  lashing 
them  with  her  fiery  scourge  they  flee  unto  it. 
They  do  not  ask  to  understand  it.  They  know 
that  it  is  God's  gift,  and  they  hide  themselves 
under  its  shadow,  praising  and  blessing  his  name 
that  it  is  possible  for  him  in  his  own  way  to  save 
the  soul  which  has  sinned.  We  look  all  through 
the  Bible,  we  are  convinced  by  the  many  proofs 
that  God  gave  it  to  us,  but  Ave  keep  asking,  "Why 
did  he  give  it?  What  is  there  in  it  worthy  of  his 
mighty  interposition  ?  "  At  length  we  come  upon 
the  story  of  redemption.  Here  is  the  thing  which 
we  most  sorely  need.  In  many  and  wonderful 
ways  the  Bible  tells  us,  over  and  over  again,  how 
sin  and  its  consequences  may  be  destroyed.  This 
becomes  the  high  and  holy  and  living  God.  This 
makes  it  wise  and  risrht  in  him  to  give  us  the  book 
we  have.  This  completes  the  circle  of  evidences  ; 
this  seals  the  testimony  that  the  Bible  is  God's 
message  to  his  sinning  children,  which  he  has  sent 
to  show  them  how  they  may  be  restored  to  har- 
mony with  him,  and  with  the  moral  order  he  has 
established. 

Christ  can  thus  undertake  for  us,  since  the 
Bible  shows  him  to  be  just  such  a  Saviour  as  the 
exigency  calls  for.  He  is  equal  to  the  work  of 
saving  a  lost  race  ;  for  he  is  in  perfect  sympathy 
with  God  and  the  eternal  laws  of  righteousness. 
He  made  all  things,  and  he  upholds  them  by  the 


172  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF    GOD. 

word  of  his  power.  Who  more  than  he  is  pledged 
to  the  highest  good  of  the  universe,  is  resolved 
that  his  universe  shall  forever  receive  no  harm? 
If  he  were  but  a  man  or  an  archang-el,  we  might 
fear  to  have  such  vast  interests  confided  to  him. 
But  he  is  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  and  there- 
fore we  may  trust  him  to  the  uttermost. 

The  emergency  is  a  great  one  ;  and  at  this  point, 
as  at  all  others,  the  Bible  meets  our  inquiries  in  a 
way  which  is  wholly  wonderful  and  divine.  Not 
only  has  Christ,  as  it  teaches,  suflered  the  ven- 
geance of  the  broken  law  in  his  own  person,  not 
only  is  he  one  in  whose  keeping  the  universe  can 
never  receive  any  harm,  but  he  can  restore  those 
who  have  sinned  to  himself,  to  the  Father,  to  the 
moral  order  of  the  world.  This  he  does  throuo:h 
their  faith  in  him.  The  faith  which  we  are  to 
have  joins  us  to  him  as  the  branch  is  joined  to  the 
vine,  as  the  members  are  in  the  body.  We  lack 
spiritual  life,  in  which  alone  there  is  power  to  live 
as  God  lives.  This  want  of  spiritual  life  in  us 
Christ  supplies  by  our  union  to  him.  The  life  of 
the  vine  goes  out  into  the  branches.  Being 
grafted  into  the  good  olive-tree  we  partake  of  its 
fatness.  Christ  does  not  stop  with  taking  our  sins 
upon  himself,  he  subdues  within  us  the  proclivity 
to  sin.  He  Avashes  us,  he  cleanses  us,  he  renews 
us,  he  makes  us  like  himself  by  the  presence  of  his 
spirit  within  us.     This  is  so  true  that  St.  Paul's 


V/HAT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  OF  REDEMPTION.     173 

inference  is,  "  If  we  have  not  his  spirit  we  are 
none  of  his."  The  tree  will  be  known  by  its 
fruits.  It  is  only  those  who  accept  him  as  their 
Saviour  whose  sins  he  atones  for.  All  who  truly 
do  this  are  so  joined  to  him  as  to  be  one  spirit 
with  him ;  the  divine  life  in  him  enters  into  them, 
and  that  life  bears  everywhere  the  same  fruits,  — 
not  one  thino-  in  him  and  somethins;  else  in  his 
followers,  but  in  them  as  in  him  :  love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  truth.  These 
are  the  fruits  of  the  spirit ;  and  where  these  are  in 
us  and  abound  they  bring  us  into  harmony  with 
God  and  with  the  eternal  order  of  thino;s.  Thev 
restore  us  to  the  paths  of  righteousness,  however 
we  may  have  sinned  in  the  past.  They  make 
our  lives  a  part  of  the  universal  anthem  of  love 
in  which  all  discordant  notes  shall  one  day  be 
drowned. 

Such  is  the  salvation,  told  in  these  few  and 
inadequate  words,  which  the  Bible  reveals.  But 
when  we  know  how  adequate  to  our  case  the 
salvation  itself  is,  what  more  need  of  witness  is 
there  that  it  comes  from  God  ?  The  Bible  would 
not  be  God's  book  to  us  if  this  were  not  in  it ; 
and  if  this  were  its  only  witness  it  would  be 
enough.  Seeing  the  rosy  dawn  which  rises  upon 
us  after  our  long  night,  we  cannot  doubt  that  it 
comes  from  the  sun.  Stooping  down  and  drinking 
of  the  river  of  water  of  life,  we  cannot  doubt  that 


174  NOT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

it  flows  out  from  under  the  throne  of  God  and  the 
Lamb.  These  words  are  too  searching,  too  sweet 
and  comforting,  too  uplifting,  too  saving  and 
refreshing  to  be  spoken  by  any  but  the  Father 
of  infinite  love,  who  knows  us  altogether. 

Dear  friend,  are  you  sailing  upon  a  dark  and 
troubled  sea  of  fears,  of  doubts,  of  baflled  en- 
deavors to  find  the  right  path?  Oh,  look  unto 
this  o^reat  lio;ht,  which  is  the  true  lio;ht  of  the  world  ! 
Let  it  not  be  in  vain  that  the  Father  of  mercies 
has  had  compassion  on  you.  Sail  into  the  light 
until  the  light  shall  enter  into  you  and  dwell  there. 
If  Christ  had  not  come  and  spoken  unto  you,  you 
had  not  sinned ;  but  now  there  is  no  cloak  for 
your  sin.  "If  the  word  spoken  by  angels  was 
steadfast,  and  every  transgression  and  disobedience 
received  a  just  recompense  of  reward,  how  shall 
we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation,  which 
at  the  first  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord,  and 
was  confirmed  unto  us  by  them  that  heard  him  ?  " 
Go  to  the  lowly  stone,  in  the  shadow  of  Cambridge 
University,  which  covers  the  mortal  remains  of 
Henry  Kirke  White.  Kneel  beside  that  stone, 
and  while  rubbing  the  mould  from  its  lettering, 
and  thinking  on  his  marvellous  career,  make  his 
tribute  to  the  Star  which  stood  over  Bethlehem 
yours :  — 

"  When  marshalled  on  the  nightly  plain, 
The  glittering  host  bestud  the  sky, 


WHAT  THE  BTBLE  SAYS  OF  BEDEMPTION.     175 

One  star  alone,  of  all  the  train, 
Can  tix  the  sinner's  wandering  eye. 

Hark  !  hark  !  to  God  the  chorus  breaks, 
From  every  host,  from  every  gem  ; 

But  one  alone  the  Saviour  speaks,  — 
It  is  the  Star  of  Bethlehem. 

"  Once  on  the  raging  seas  I  rode, 

The  storm  was  loud,  the  night  was  dark, 
The  ocean  yawned,  and  fiercely  blowed 

The  wind  that  tossed  my  foundering  bark. 
Deep  horror  then  my  vitals  froze  ; 

Death-struck,  I  ceased  the  tide  to  stem  ; 
When  suddenly  a  star  arose,  — 

It  was  the  Star  of  Bethlehem. 

*'  It  was  my  guide,  my  light,  my  all  ; 

It  bade  my  dark  foreboding  cease, 
And  through  the  storm  and  danger's  thrall 

It  led  me  to  the  port  of  peace. 
Now  safely  moored,  my  perils  o'er, 

I'll  sing,  first  in  night's  diadem. 
Forever  and  forevermore. 

The  Star,  the  Star  of  Bethlehem." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHY  SOME   MEN  DOUBT   THE  BIBLE. 

You  will  naturally  expect  me,  in  this  closing 
chapter,  to  say  something  of  that  disbelief  of  the 
Bible  which  often  breaks  forth  in  the  world  and 
abounds.  What  is  the  origin  of  that  disbelief,  and 
how  may  it  be  prevented  or  cured  ?  The  argu- 
ments which  prove  that  the  Bible  is  God's  l)ook 
are  so  many  and  so  accessible  that  we  wonder  why 
there  should  be  any  skeptics.  It  relieves  the 
question  somewhat  to  know  that  there  is  no  truth 
which  somebody  has  not  doubted,  still  we  ask  how 
it  can  be  accounted  for.  We  give  a  reason  for  the 
faith  in  us ;  what  cause  do  we  assign  for  the  dis- 
belief or  the  unbelief  in  others  ? 

This  unbelief  is  not  always  assignable  to  the 
same  cause,  as  we  trace  it.  There  are  idiosyn- 
crasies in  men ;  they  look  at  the  Bible  from  dif- 
ferent points  of  view ;  something  peculiar  in  the 
training  or  surroundings  or  experience  of  the 
doubter  has  led  him  into  his  doulit.  To  take  up 
all  these  cases  and  account  for  them,  one  by  one, 
would  be  an  endless  task.  I  can  give  only  certain 
quite  general  causes,  which,  I  think,  can  be  shown 
to  be  in  some  way  at  the  bottom  of  nearly  all 
176 


WHY  SOME  MEN  DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      177 

doubt  as  to  the  divine  origin  and  binding  author- 
ity of  the  Bible. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  most  general  cause  of 
unbelief  is  a  worldly  spirit.  Men  are  not  deeply 
and  sincerely  interested  in  di\dne  things.  They 
may  be  interested  in  them  as  theories,  as  curious 
and  subtle  speculations,  but  they  are  not  inter- 
ested in  them  as  facts.  Those  eternal  things  which 
relate  to  the  soul  are  to  them  remote,  vague,  un- 
real. Temporal  things  are  right  about  them,  and 
pressing  upon  them,  and  they  have  fallen  into  the 
habit  of  o^ivino-  these  almost  their  undivided 
thoughts. 

Now  you  know  that  what  we  give  our  undivided 
attention  to  tends  to  educate  us  into  sympathy 
with  itself.  If  there  be  in  us  powers  which  have 
no  affinity  for  it,  these  it  leaves  unnourished  till 
they  are  dwarfed  into  useless  rudimentary  append- 
ages ;  but  such  powers  in  us  as  have  an  affinity 
for  it,  it  develops  till  they  become  overshadow- 
ing, and  absorl)  the  whole  strength  and  vitality  of 
our  nature. 

There  are  two  doors  in  each  one  of  us,  —  a  door 
by  which  we  may  go  out  into  eternity  and  its  great 
truths,  and  a  door  by  which  we  may  enter  into  the 
near  and  palpable  interests  of  the  worldly  life. 
This  latter  door  is  always  wide  open,  and  the 
other  is  too  apt  to  be  altogether  closed  up.  God 
is  a  spirit,  and  must  be  Avorshipped  in  spirit.    The 


178  NOT   OF  MAN,   BUT   OF  GOD. 

book  he  has  given  us  speaks  of  spiritual  things, 
nor  can  we  receive  it  save  in  the  exercise  of  our 
spiritual  faculties.  What  wonder,  then,  if  we  doubt 
it,  if  we  even  reject  it,  when  the  spirit  in  us  has 
become  dormant,  inactive,  through  our  devotion 
to  the  world?  How  can  we  believe  in  that  to 
which  we  have  become  dead  ?  The  chief  of  the 
tropical  island  doubted  that  there  was  such  a  thing 
as  ice, — water  become  solid,  — for  he  had  never 
seen  anything  of  the  sort.  However  much  we 
may  have  heard  of  a  remote  city  or  country,  until 
our  own  eyes  have  seen  it,  we  are  not  as  sure  of 
its  existence  as  we  should  like  to  be. 

But  what  if  we  are  without  eyes?  without  any 
of  those  perceptions  by  wdiich  w^e  may  verify  facts 
reported  to  us?  It  is  not  at  all  wonderful,  if,  in 
such  a  case,  we  refuse  to  believe  ;  and  such  is  the 
case,  in  one  form  or  another,  of  those  in  whom  the 
claim  of  the  Bible  to  be  God's  book  awakens 
doubt.  Christ  said  of  those  who  would  not  be- 
lieve in  his  divine  mission,  "  This  people's  heart  is 
waxed  gross,  and  their  ears  are  dull  of  hearing, 
and  their  eyes  they  have  closed."  Such  is  the 
sad  calamity  which  has  overtaken  those  who  doubt 
the  Bilile  :  having  eyes  they  see  not,  and  having 
ears  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they  understand. 
They  have  lost  the  use  of  those  divine  faculties  by 
which  alone  the  Bible  may  be  seen  to  be  the  word 
of  God.     The  blind  man  has  no  correct  knowledge 


WHY   SOME  MEN   DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      179 

of  colors,  nor  can  you  give  him  any.  Perhaps  he 
once  saw,  but  his  power  of  vision  was  marred  and 
has  fallen  into  decay.  To  him  there  is  but  one 
color,  —  his  monotonous  darkness,  which  is  the 
absence  of  all  colors.  He  hears  his  friends  speak 
of  the  bright  and  many-tinted  face  of  nature,  and 
he  tries  to  imagine  what  they  mean.  Having  the 
use  of  his  hearing,  he  perhaps  likens  colors  to 
sounds,  —  says  that  the  red  rose  is  like  a  bugle 
note,  the  golden  sunset  like  an  organ's  tones. 
We  who  see  him,  and  who  love  him,  pity  his  mis- 
fortune. He  misjudges  concerning  colors,  and 
even  doubts  that  there  are  any.  But  his  doubt 
proves  nothing  against  them ;  it  only  shows  that 
he  has  lost  the  power  of  discerning  color.  Let  his 
sight  be  restored  to  him,  and  he  will  believe,  as 
much  as  we,  in  the  varied  beauty  and  glory  of 
God's  works.  He  knows  his  defect,  and  readily 
yields  his  doubt  to  those  who  can  see. 

Now  you  and  I,  my  dear  friend,  should,  in 
judging  the  Bible,  learn  to  take  our  defect  into 
account.  Are  there  thinofs  in  it  which  we  cannot 
comprehend,  which  seem  absurd  to  us,  which  we 
feel  a  strong  impulse  to  pronounce  untrue  ?  Let 
not  the  blind  man  say,  "  I  see."  You  know  some- 
thing of  God,  but  not  the  whole.  The  relation  of 
your  finiteness  to  his  infinity  is  such  that  you 
should  expect  him  to  say  things  which  puzzle  you. 
Kthe  compass  does  not  seem  to  you  to  point  the 


180  NOT  OF  MAN,  BUT  OF  GOD. 

way  it  should,  your  wisdom  still  is  in  believing  it 
right  and  yourself  wrong.  You  had  better  believe 
that  the  sun  does  rise  in  the  east,  even  when  you 
think  it  rises  in  the  west,  if  you  would  find  your 
way  out  of  the  woods.  It  is  you,  not  nature,  that 
has  been  turned  round  ;  you,  not  what  comes  from 
God,  that  is  at  fault.  Wait  till  you  are  sure  that 
the  faculties  in  you,  by  which  the  Bible  is  to  be 
judged,  are  perfect,  before  you  begin  to  doubt. 
How  many  blessed  souls  there  have  been,  along 
in  history,  who  clung  to  their  beliefs  till  they  out- 
grew their  doubts  !  They  were  wise  enough  to 
charge  it  to  the  deficiency  in  themselves,  when 
they  saw  men  as  trees  walking ;  and  they  clung  to 
their  beliefs  till  they  outgrew  their  doubts,  till 
they  saw  spiritual  things  plainly.  Remember, 
dear  friend,  that  our  doubt  of  the  Bible  grows  out 
of  our  defect ;  we  doubt  because  our  spiritual 
vision  is  diseased.  When  the  eye  of  our  soul  is  in 
perfect  health,  we  shall  believe  with  all  the  heart. 
Devotion  to  the  things  of  which  time  and  sense 
speak  has  made  men  unable  to  know  the  things  of 
which  the  Bible  speaks.  Wait  till  your,  spiritual 
deafness  is  cured,  and  then  say  whether  or  not  the 
voice  of  the  Bible  is  God's  voice. 

Worldliness,  in  which  I  claim  that  doubt  of  the 
Bible  begins,  has  many  forms.  Nor  is  that  form 
of  it  which  we  are  wont  to  consider  grossest 
always  most  damaging  to  the  spiritual  faculty  in 


WHY  SOME  MEN   DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      181 

US.  You  look  on  the  brutal  slave  of  his  own  appe- 
tites and  passions,  and  you  say,  "  No  wonder  that 
he  cannot  believe  the  high  and  pure  teachings  of 
God's  Avord."  He  is  sunk  into  a  stupid  heap  of 
animalism.  He  has  in  him  nothing  with  which  to 
perceive  what  is  divine.  Some  life  like  that  of 
God  must  be  first  kindled  in  him,  and  he  must  be 
lifted  into  some  sort  of  sympathy  with  God,  or  he 
cannot  discern  what  God  has  said.  You  look  on 
the  savage  running  wild  in  the  woods,  and  you 
say,  "  His  soul  is  dwarfed,  withered,  dead  ;  he  has 
no  faculty  by  which  to  see  that  God's  message  is 
from  God."  His  debasing  habits  have  lowered 
him  so  near  the  level  of  the  brute  which  he  hunts 
that  he  cannot  tell  God's  voice  from  the  voice  of  a 
man. 

But,  perhaps,  you  look  on  one  who  is  not  sav- 
age, who  is  not  brutal  or  corrupt  in  life ;  on  the 
man  whose  life  is,  in  the  language  of  the  market, 
honest  and  true,  but  who  is  wholly  absorbed  by 
his  own  secular  afiairs.  You  do  not  wonder  if 
you  find  him  smiling,  and  waving  aside  the  whole 
solemn  concern,  when  you  try  a  little  to  bring  the 
truths  of  the  Bible  to  his  notice.  Why  should  he 
not  do  this  ?  What  chance  to  grow  has  the  appe- 
tency for  spiritual  things  in  him  ever  had  ?  Look 
at  his  whole  life  ;  —  it  has  been  given  to  material 
pursuits.  All  that  in  him  which  has  to  do  with 
worldliness,  with  earthly  concerns,  has  been  pro- 


182  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

digiously  developed.  It  has  towered  up  and 
spread  abroad,  and  overshadowed  everything 
spiritual  in  him.  His  spiritual  powers  have  been 
asleep,  have  grown  weak  and  puny  all  the  while. 
He  has  lost  all  connection  with  unseen  things ;  no 
voice  out  of  eternity  can  make  itself  heard  in  his 
dull  ear.  What  wonder,  then,  when  the  Bible 
comes  to  him,  if  he  has  no  welcome  for  it?  if  he 
even  doubts  whether  there  be  any  God  to  give 
such  a  book,  or  any  such  hereafter,  or  obligations 
of  religion  and  morality,  as  it  speaks  of.  His 
doubting  of  the  Bible  is  no  mystery  to  you,  for  he 
lacks  the  faculty  with  which  to  believe  it. 

But  I  turn  from  these  instances  to  that  which 
has,  perhaps,  more  than  anything  else  to  do  with 
present  doubts  concerning  the  Bible.  Is  it  any 
wonder,  I  ask,  that  the  man  whose  life  is  devoted  to 
material  science,  and  who  forgets  to  keep  himself 
all  the  time  in  full  sympathy  with  God,  sinks  at 
length  into  such  lack  of  true  spiritual  life  as  to  be 
no  longer  able  to  believe  that  the  Bible  is  God's 
book?  His  whole  energy  and  enthusiasm  are 
turned  to  the  investigation  of  matter.  His  sense 
perceptions,  his  powers  of  critically  observing 
what  is  visible  and  tangible,  are  remarkably 
developed.  Losing  his  interest  in  everything  but 
his  chosen  studies,  what  wonder  that  his  faculty 
for  knowing  religious  truth  becomes  dwarfed, 
torpid,  useless,  —  like  the  eyes  of  fishes  in  caves 


WHY  SOME  MEN   DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      183 

or  the  wings  of  birds  thtit  never  fly  ?  Such  an  one 
may  be  a  master  in  material  science,  but  spiritual 
things  liave  grown  unreal  to  him.  Of  course  the 
messages  of  the  Bible  find  no  response  or  wel- 
come in  his  soul ;  he  applies  to  it  his  materialistic 
tests  ;  it  is  to  him  a  book  of  fables  and  dreams, 
for  it  comes  out  of  a  world  of  which  he  has  lost 
all  knowledge.  Men  of  this  stamp  reject  the  Bilile 
as  naturally  as  a  blind  man  does  our  theories  of 
color. 

And  when  the  learned  skeptic  scatters  his 
doubts  far  and  Avide  through  books,  papers,  and 
magazines,  what  wonder  that  they  are  at  once 
welcomed  by  thousands  who,  like  him,  though  in 
various  ways,  are  devoted  to  material  pursuits? 
Thus  do  I  account  for  the  fact  that  not  only  some 
students  of  nature,  but  the  masses  for  whom  they 
write  and  lecture,  are  sometimes  unable  to  receive 
the  Bible  as  a  record  of  religious  truth  sent  to 
them  from  God.  It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that 
they  reject  it ;  and  what  they  do,  so  far  from 
proving  that  the  Bible  is  untrue,  only  shows  how 
sadly  they  have  been  maimed  and  blinded  in  soul, 
—  their  love  of  material  things  wholly  absorbing 
them,  and  the  power  to  see  eternal  things  dormant 
or  dead  in  them.  The  natural  man  perceives  not 
the  things  which  are  of  God,  for  he  has  not  in  full 
exercise  the  faculties  by  which  alone  they  can  be 
discerned. 


184  ^OT  OF  MAN,    BUT  OF  GOD. 

Such  being  the  origin  of  men's  doubts  as  to  the 
truth  of  the  Bible,  the  way  of  removing  their 
doubts  is  at  once  suggested :  they  do  not  need  to 
be  argued  with  so  much  as  quickened  in  soul. 
While  there  is  this  lack  of  spiritual  life  in 
unbelievers,  arguments  addressed  to  their  reason 
or  understanding  will  hardly  persuade  them  to  put 
away  their  doubts.  The  arguments  which  I  have 
tried  to  bring  in  the  foregoing  chapters  have  been 
not  so  much  for  them  as  for  those  who  have  some 
spiritual  life, — for  persons  yet  young  in  their 
Christian  discipleship,  or  just  quickened  to 
religious  inquiry  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  are 
more  or  less  troubled  and  confused  by  doubts  con- 
cerning the  Bible,  with  which  the  air  about  them 
is  at  times  filled. 

I  have  small  hope  that  anything  I  can  say  on 
the  evidences  will  be  of  much  use  to  the  devoted 
materialist  and  the  thoi'ough-going  worldling,  who 
have  rejected  the  Bible.  Nor  do  I  believe  that 
any  human  arguments  can  remove  their  skepti- 
cism. It  is  sometimes  said,  you  know,  that 
Christians  themselves  may,  by  living  faithful  lives, 
apply  the  best  cure  to  unbelief.  The  best  possible 
for  man  to  apply,  I  grant,  but  still  ineffectual. 
The  Christian  is  the  world's  Bible ;  but  the  world 
often  doubts  him  quite  as  much  as  the  written 
volume.  You  know  that  the  worst  men,  and 
hardest  doubters,  may  live  all  their  lives  in  imme- 


WHY  SOME  MEN  DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      185 

diate  contact  with  the  best  and  hohest  men. 
Where  goodness  does  not  attract  it  repels.  How 
quick  the  bad  are  to  see  the  defects  in  the  good, 
and  to  be  influenced  by  those  defects  ;  just  as  they 
love  to  dwell  on  that  in  the  Bible  which  puzzles 
them,  and  to  make  it  a  reason  for  rejecting  the 
book.  The  fault  is  not  in  the  Bible,  nor  in  our 
arguments,  nor  in  the  lives  of  Christians,  but  in 
those  who  doubt.  They  have  lost  all  true  and 
simple  love — their  first  love — for  religious  truth. 
Their  whole  mind  and  energy  are  absorbed  by 
material  and  temporal  things ;  their  spiritual  per- 
ceptions have  grown  weak  by  disease.  The 
remedy  must  reach  the  disease.  Spiritual  health, 
such  as  men  begin  to  get  when  they  are  born 
again  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  their  first  great 
need. 

Nothinof  will  ever  induce  men  to  receive  the 
Bible,  and  to  love  and  obey  its  precepts,  while 
this  inward  quickening  is  wanting.  They  will 
doubt,  just  because  it  has  grown  to  be  natural  with 
them  to  doubt  what  is  unseen  and  divine.  Though 
nothinof  can  be  more  true  than  that  the  Bible  is 
God's  book,  and  reveals  him  to  men,  they  will 
doubt  it,  just  as  the  blind  doubt  that  there  are 
colors,  or  the  deaf  that  there  are  sounds.  Though 
the  Bible  should  be  shown  to  be  as  true  as  the 
axioms  of  mathematics,  they  will  still  doubt,  as 
some  doubt  those  axioms.     They  will  not  be  per- 


188  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

suaded  tbouij-li  one  should  rise  from  the  dead, 
you  may  show  that  they  need  a  revelation ;  that 
God  desires  to  give  them  one,  and  has  full  power 
to  give  it ;  that  the  Bible  claims  to  be  his,  and  is 
such  a  message  as  we  should  expect  from  him  ;  that 
contemporary  history  and  the  fulfilment  of  pro- 
phecy, and  what  the  Bible  has  done  in  the  world, 
make  good  its  claims, —  all  this  and  much  more 
you  may  show  ;  but  what  is  it  to  those  who,  having 
eyes,  see  not,  and  having  ears,  hear  not,  and  who 
do  not  understand?  The  argument  which  they 
need  must  begin  within  them,  in  the  quickening  of 
their  spiritual  perceptions,  in  their  dying  to  the 
world  and  being  made  alive  to  God. 

The  question  is  sometimes  raised,  whether  the 
more  conspicuous  of  those  who  doubt  the  Bible  are 
of  a  higher  order  of  mind  than  those  who  believe 
it.  I  do  not  think  they  are  higher  or  as  high. 
The  imperial  minds  of  our  race  who  have  known 
the  Bible  —  the  Leibnitzes,  the  Pascals,  the 
Shakespeares,  the  Bacons,  the  Edwardses,  and 
Websters  —  have  been  implicit  believers  in  its 
divine  authority. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  disparage  the  unbe- 
lievers. They  may  have  the  very  highest  intel- 
lectual gifts,  yet,  being  wholly  given  up  to  mate- 
rial things,  or  studying  religion  mainly  as  a  mere 
theory,  they  are  more  powerless  than  the  unwise 
and  unlearned  to  receive  the  Bible  as  God's  word 


WHT  SOME  MEN  DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      187 

to  liis  own  children  about  eternal  tliino's.  Their 
prodigious  growth  in  philosophy,  in  criticism,  in 
curious  speculation,  has  only  the  more  effectually 
killed  in  them  those  childlike  soul-perceptions  by 
which  God  and  his  word  may  be  truly  known.  If 
you  go  far  back  in  histor}'^,  and  walk  down  be- 
tween the  two  ranks,  the  doubters  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  believers  on  the  other,  you  may  accord 
equal  natural  powers  to  them  all ;  those  in  one  of 
the  ranks  doubt  because  only  that  side  of  them 
which  is  toward  this  world  has  been  developed, 
those  in  the  other  line  believe  because  the  faculties 
in  them  which  are  fitted  to  lay  hold  of  God  and  his 
truth  are  healthy  and  full-grown. 

You  go  to  such  men  as  Pascal  or  Edwards,  and 
you  cannot  possibly  make  them  doubt  that  the 
Bible  is  God's  book ;  they  know  it  is  from  the 
way  in  which  it  speaks  of  God  and  his  kingdom. 
There  have  been  millions,  —  the  loftiest  men  and 
the  humblest,  the  greatest  and  the  least,  —  who, 
by  faith,  dwelt  in  that  kingdom.  They  walked 
with  God,  and  their  conversation  was  in  heaven. 
To  them  nothing  else  could  be  so  true  as  the  Bible, 
since  it  gave  a  ground  for  their  own  experience,  it 
spoke  back  to  them  what  they  were  deeply  con- 
scious of.  They  had  seen  the  King  in  his  beauty, 
the  land  that  is  very  far  off";  and  the  book  which 
came  to  them  out  of  that  land,  with  the  King's  seal 
upon  it,  was  no  fable,  no  dream,  but  the  yea  and 


188  -^^OT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF  GOD. 

amen  to  what  they  had  most  deeply  known  and 
felt  in  their  souls.  The  eagerness  with  which  such 
men  have  received  the  Bible,  and  laid  it  away  in 
their  hearts,  and  gloried  in  it  as  the  truth  of 
truths,  will  be  shared  by  you  and  me,  dear  friend, 
as  those  faculties  in  us  by  which  we  apprehend 
religious  truth  come  out  from  their  bondage  to 
things  seen,  and  are  renewed  and  made  to  grow 
up  towards  a  perfect  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  When 
we  are  dead  to  the  world,  and  alive  to  God,  we 
shall  see  that  the  Bible  is  wholly  and  divinely 
true. 

This  quickening  and  renewal,  this  regeneration, 
this  unfolding  of  your  ,spiritual  fiiculties  into  the 
full  likeness  of  God,  is  what  I  first  and  most 
desire  for  you,  dear  friend.  There  are  some,  yea, 
I  trust,  many,  things  in  the  Bible  which  you  can 
already  see  to  be  Avondrously  true.  Let  this  be  a 
sign  to  you  that  your  spiritual  perceptions,  how- 
ever neglected  or  abused,  are  not  yet  Avholly  dead. 
Though  they  seem  to  you  at  times  to  live  a  feeble 
and  flickering  life,  Christ  has  come  that  you  might 
have  life  more  abundantly.  Quench  not  the 
Spirit,  and  then  you  will  not  despise  prophesy- 
ings.  It  is  necessary,  in  order  that  you  may  find 
God  and  eternal  life  in  the  Bible,  that  you  should 
be  born  again,  —  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will 
of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God. 
If  you  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  who 


WHY  SOME  MEN  DOUBT  THE  BIBLE.      189 

comes  to  work  this  glorious  work  in  you,  he  will 
seal  you  unto  the  day  of  redemption,  and  will 
open  to  you  the  divine  meaning  of  Scripture. 
You  shall  have  the  mind  of  Christ.  You  shall 
receive  that  spirit  by  which  all  things,  even  the 
deep  things  of  God,  are  perceived. 

But  not  all  at  once  shall  the  glory  burst  on  you 
out  of  the  divine  book.  First  the  blade,  then  the 
ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,  —  a  gradual 
process  of  knowing,  answering  to  the  process  of 
renewal  going  on  within  you.  You  find  a  little 
spot  cleared  for  you  in  the  vast  forest  of  doubt ; 
there  pitch  your  tent.  Do  not  stray  away  into 
the  surrounding  woods,  and  lose  yourself  in  their 
tangled  depths,  but  enlarge  the  bounds  of  your 
clearing.  Try  to  know  what  is  mysterious  in 
God's  word  only  as  you  are  sure  that  you  study 
it  for  duty's  sake,  and  with  the  light  of  his  coun- 
tenance falling  around  you.  Your  first  wisdom 
consists  in  reducing  to  practice  what  you  already 
know,  and  your  next  wisdom  in  seeking  to  know 
more  only  that  you  may  improve  your  practice. 
They  shall  learn  of  Christ  who  follow  him. 
Those  who  do  his  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine. 
You  already  see  something,  though  but  darkly,  as 
in  a  glass ;  yet,  if  you  are  true  to  that  present 
light,  the  day  is  coming  when  you  shall  see  face  to 
face.  Though  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be 
taken  away  what  he  hath,  to  him  that  hath  shall 


190  NOT  OF  MAN,   BUT  OF    GOD. 

be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance.  If  you 
are  false  to  so  much  of  the  Bible  as  you  can  now 
believe,  you  will  at  length  doubt  the  whole  ;  but  if 
you  are  true  to  it,  the  whole  of  the  blessed  volume 
shall  be  made  clear  as  the  noonday  to  you.  You 
may  not  understand  it  while  in  the  flesh,  but  in 
the  brighter  day  which  is  coming,  the  Lamb  in 
the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  take  it,  and  shall  un- 
loose to  you  its  seals.  Turn  away  from  the  light 
which  you  now  see  in  God's  word,  and  there  will 
be  left  in  it  but  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  you  ; 
follow  that  light  and  it  shall  lead  you  forth  into  a 
boundless  and  resplendent  day. 

Not  outwardly,  along  the  thorny  paths  of  human 
speculation,  but  within  you,  in  the  cry  of  your 
spirit  and  God's  answer  thereto,  must  you  search 
for  the  well  of  water  which  springs  up  into  ever- 
lastinof  life  :  — 


"  Came  North  and  South  and  East  and  West, 
Four  sages,  to  a  mountain  crest, 
Each  pledged  to  search  the  wide  world  round 
Until  the  wondrous  M'ell  be  found. 

"  Before  a  crag  they  made  their  seat, 
Pure  bubbling  waters  at  their  feet. 
Said  one.  This  well  is  small  and  mean, 
Too  petty  for  a  village  green! 
Another  said.  So  small  and  dumb. 
From  earth's  deep  centre  can  it  come  ? 
The  third,  This  water  seems  not  rare, 
Not  even  bright,  but  pale  as  airl 


WHY  SOMJiJ  MEN  DOUBT   THE  BIBLE.      191 

The  fourth,  Thick  crowds  I  looked  to  see; 
Where  the  true  well  is  these  must  be. 

"  They  rose  and  left  the  mountain  crest,  — 
One  North,  one  South,  one  East,  one  West; 
O'er  many  seas  and  deserts  wide 
They  wandered,  thirsting,  till  they  died. 

"  The  simple  shepherds  by  the  mountain  dwell, 
And  dip  their  pitchers  in  the  wondrous  well." 


Boston  Stkreotype  Fofndky,  No.  4  Pearl  Street. 


